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From the collection of the
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The American Guide Series
IDAHO
A GUIDE IN WORD AND PICTURE
J
Odaho
a ^u ide
in l^ord and Picture
iPrepared oy
the CJeaeral Vi/riters [Projects
of the Vi/orfts IProgress
^amifiistration
VARDIS FISHER, State Director
The Library Edition
The CAXTON PRINTERS, Ltd.
CALDWELL, IDAHO
1937
THE WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
First printing, January, 1937
Second printing, June, 1937
COPYRIGHT 1937 BY
FRANKLIN GIRARD
SECRETARY OF STATE OP IDAHO
COPYRIGHT 1937 BY
IRA H. MASTERS
SECRETARY OF STATE OF IDAHO
Sponsored by the Secretary of State
Printed, lithographed, and bound in the United States of America by
The CAXTON PRINTERS, Ltd.
Caldwell, Idaho
48700
TO
ALL IDAHOANS WHO HELPED TO MAKE IT,
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
FOREWORD
GETTING out a book of this sort proved to be an un-
usually difficult task because on so many matters,
such as flora and fauna, there was little published infor-
mation, and on still other matters much of what had been
published was inaccurate. It is quite beyond reason to ex-
pect that no inaccuracies exist herein, but it is hoped that
the number is few. In some instances statements may be
challenged by persons who are unaware that a good many
of the traditional notions about Idaho are not supported
by fact.
To the hundreds of Idahoans who gave willingly of their
information and time, acknowledgment is now made, and
it is regretted that their names cannot be appropriately
recorded here. The Guide is indebted more especially to
J. A. Harrington, Harry Shellworth, Ben Oppenheim, Ans-
gar Johnson, and Dr. A. E. Weaver for their assistance in
many matters ; to members of the University faculties at
both Moscow and Pocatello for their reading of certain
chapters; to Altha E. Fouch and Esther Hanifen of the
State Historical Society, who not only gave invaluable
assistance in many matters but also made office space
available in their already crowded quarters ; to the super-
visors of all the National Forests of the State for their
willing aid ; and above all to M. S. Benedict, whose gener-
osity in placing his skill as a photographer at the service
of Idaho knew no limits.
The Pocatello copy was written by businessmen of
8 FOREWORD
that city, and the two essays on Indians by Ruth E. Lyon.
The maps are the work of F. M. Tarr. It will be noted, of
course, that much interesting material, and notably in
the categories of social and cultural development, has
been omitted because of limitations of space. These and
many other items will be covered in the atlas and encyclo-
pedia which will follow the Guide.
Vardis Fisher
CONTENTS
Page
Foreword 7
SECTION I
I. An Essay in Idaho History 17
11. History of Idaho Indians 41
III. Anthropology of Idaho Indians 55
IV. Idaho from the Air 73
V. Flora 93
VI. Fauna 119
VII. Hunting and Fishing 153
VIII. Resources and Products 165
IX. Emerging from the Frontier 183
SECTION II
I. Tours 193
General Information for Tourists 194
Idaho's Major Points of Interest 195
Tour 1
Section a, U S 191, Montana Line to Idaho
Falls 197
Section b, U S 91, Idaho Falls to Utah Line... .210
Tour 2, U S 91, Montana Line to Idaho Falls....216
Tour 3
Section a, U S 30 N, Wyoming Line to
Pocatello 218
10 CONTENTS
I. Tours — (Continued) Page
Section b, U S 30 N and U S 30, Pocatello
to Boise 230
Section c, U S 30, Boise to Weiser 253
Tour 4, State 27, Blackfoot to Junction with
U S 93 2 m south of Challis 265
Tour 5
Section a, U S 93, Montana Line to Hailey....273
Section b, U S 93, Hailey to Nevada Line 285
Tour 6, State 15 and 44, New Meadows to
Boise 293
Tour?
Section a, U S 95, Canadian Line to Lewis-
ton 300
Section b, U S 95, Lewiston to Weiser 308
Tour 8, State 9 and 7, Spalding to Grange-
ville 319
Tour 9, U S 95 Alt., Coeur d'Alene to Pot-
latch 325
Tour 10, U S 10, Montana Line to Washing-
ton Line 331
Tour 11, State 3 and U S 195, Montana Line
to Washington Line 337
II. The Primitive Area 345
III. A Trip into the Area 353
IV. Buried Treasures 365
V. Ghost Towns 379
VI. A Few Tall Tales 393
VII. Origins of Names 405
A Selected Bibliography 415
Acknowledgments 419
Index 423
ILLUSTRATIONS
Following
Page
Idaho State Flag Frontispiece
Jim Marshall of Fort Hall
Fort Hall Indian
Fort Hall Indian
Fort Hall Indian 64
A lava field near the Craters of the Moon
Sawtooth Mountains west of Stanley
An aerial view of Boise 80
Bayview on Lake Pend d'Oreille
Lewiston
Looking northeast toward Atlanta from Arrowrock Dam
The Seven Devils 88
White pine and cedar
Matured yellow pine
White bark pine : two grotesques
Tag alder; aspen 96
Mountain ash; elderberry
Colorado blue columbine; kinnikinnick
Syringa: Idaho State Flower
Sego lily: Utah State Flower 104
Indian paintbrush ; marsh marigold
Balsam and lupine ...., 114
Bear up a tree ; come on down
Elk in winter
Deer on Moore Creek
Antelope in flight 120
Mountain goat
Rocky Mountain sheep : beginning of a battle
Elk: finish of a fight 126
12 ILLUSTRATIONS
Follozving
Page
Hunting is good in Idaho
The limit: cutthroat and rainbow
Snake River sturgeon
Wild geese and ducks 156
Power plant at Moyie Falls
Sheep
Timber
Sluicing logs; trainload of logs 166
Panning for gold
Idaho's big potatoes
A row of onions
A lettuce patch I'O
Upper Mesa Falls
Teton Peaks 200
Crystal Falls Cave: Crystal Falls
Crystal Falls Cave: a backdrop
Crystal Falls Cave: a corridor
Crystal Falls Cave: a ceiling 204
Corridor of the Kings
Cavern of the Idols
The Bride 220
Snake River Gorge : the footprints of time
Perrine Coulee Falls
Twin Falls
Shoshone Falls : 240
Balanced Rock
Phantom Walls
Icicle Cove
Snowbank Falls at Blue Lakes 244
Thousand Springs
Malad Gorge
Bruneau Canyon
Map of the United States— in Middle Fork of Boise River 248
A Boise sky
A view of Boise
Arrowrock Dam
Historic Table Rock 256
Jump Creek Canyon
A profile in Sucker Creek 260
Monoliths at sunset and Volcanic Crater — Craters of the Moon
Cave Mouth and formation of cave interior — Craters of the
Moon
Indian Tunnel: entrance and corridor — Craters of the Moon
Lava flow and impression of charred log in lava — Craters of
the Moon 266
Natural bridge near Arco
Mount Borah 268
ILLUSTRATIONS 13
Following
Page
The Sawtooth Mountains east of Stanley
The outlet of Redfish Lake
Stanley Lake
Roaring Lake 278
Pettit Lake
Alice Lake
Imogene Lake
Galena Summit 282
Dog team on Wood River, near Hailey
Trail Creek near Ketchum 284
Middle and third chambers, Shoshone Ice Caves
Gooding City of Rocks
Salmon Dam
Twin Falls-Jerome Bridge 288
South Fork of Payette River
Payette Lake 294
Spirit Lake
Forest trail from Hayden Lake to North Fork
Hayden Lake
Surf-riding on Lake Coeur d'Alene 302
Coeur d'Alene
U S 95 through the pines of northern Idaho
A campus view
The Lewiston Hill 304
White pine lumber
Winchester Hill
Along the Salmon River
The Salmon River from the North-and-South Highway 312
Typical National Forest lookout
Rapid River Falls 314
The Lochsa River
Pierce City
Through the Clearwater National Forest
Government pack string on the Selway River 320
Marble Creek
The St. Joe River
Beauty Bay, Lake Coeur d'A'ene
Sunset on Lake Coeur d'Alene 328
The Sunshine Mine
Coeur d'Alene National Forest
The Mullan Tree
Fernan Lake and beyond 334
Lake Pend d'Oreille
Priest River country
Priest Lake
Chimney Rock near Priest Lake 340
14 ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
Following
Page
Middle Fork of Salmon River
Junction of Middle Fork and main Salmon
Submerged town of Roosevelt — Thunder Mountain area
A monument on Monumental Creek 348
Packing in
Mountain goat country
Cougar Dave and his dogs
Journey's end 356
The old hotel at Florence
Grave of an old-timer 380
MAPS
Facing
Page
History Map 17
Relief Map 73
Fish and Game Map 153
Resources Map 165
Products Map 177
Transportation Map 183
Key Map to Sections and Tours 193
Section I
Section VI
Section II
Section III following 196
Map of Boise 253
Section IV
Section V following 292
Recreation Map 353
Highway Map following Index
SECTION I
I
AN ESSAY IN IDAHO HISTORY
9 N I lAJ O A /V\
o
<
NOX9 N IH SVm -^P^
i ^iii
-_^:^ZKr§ I
AN ESSAY IN IDAHO HISTORY
A FTER three centuries of adventurous seeking, the
-^^ American continent has been explored and settled,
and the last frontier is gone. The lusty and profane ex-
tremes of it still live nebulously in the gaudy imbecilities
of newsstand pulp magazines and in cheap novels, wherein
to appease the hunger of human beings for drama and
spectacle, heroines distressingly invulnerable are fought
over by villains and heroes and restored to their rich
properties of mine or cattle ranch ; and the villain, if left
unslain, passes out of the story sulking darkly; and the
hero, without cracking a smile, stands up with the heroine
clinging to his breast and addresses the reader with plati-
tudes that would slay any ordinary man. But these villains
with their Wild Bill mustaches, these apple-cheeked hero-
ines agog with virtue, and these broad adolescent heroes
who say "gosh ding it" and shoot with deadly accuracy
from either hand are remote in both temper and character
from the persons who built the West. They are shoddy
sawdust counterfeits who would have been as much out of
place in the old West as Chief Nampuh with his huge feet
would have been among the theatrical ineptitudes of a
Victorian tea.
It is a little strange, therefore, that many of the recent
books about frontiersmen have been so painstakingly
off the track. It is unfortunate that opinion runs
to one of two extremes. There are, on the one hand, those
writers who declare solemnly that the men and women
v3a
I 3
AN ESSAY IN IDAHO HISTORY
A FTER three centuries of adventurous seeking, the
-^^ American continent has been explored and settled,
and the last frontier is gone. The lusty and profane ex-
tremes of it still live nebulously in the gaudy imbecilities
of newsstand pulp magazines and in cheap novels, wherein
to appease the hunger of human beings for drama and
spectacle, heroines distressingly invulnerable are fought
over by villains and heroes and restored to their rich
properties of mine or cattle ranch ; and the villain, if left
unslain, passes out of the story sulking darkly; and the
hero, without cracking a smile, stands up with the heroine
clinging to his breast and addresses the reader with plati-
tudes that would slay any ordinary man. But these villains
with their Wild Bill mustaches, these apple-cheeked hero-
ines agog with virtue, and these broad adolescent heroes
who say "gosh ding it" and shoot with deadly accuracy
from either hand are remote in both temper and character
from the persons who built the West. They are shoddy
sawdust counterfeits who would have been as much out of
place in the old West as Chief Nampuh with his huge feet
would have been among the theatrical ineptitudes of a
Victorian tea.
It is a little strange, therefore, that many of the recent
books about frontiersmen have been so painstakingly
off the track. It is unfortunate that opinion runs
to one of two extremes. There are, on the one hand, those
writers who declare solemnly that the men and women
18 IDAHO
who moved westward, conquering the last reaches of
wilderness and danger, were either morons who had no
notion of what they were doing or low-browed rascals
fleeing from the law. Those who argue, as some have,
that the frontiers were settled largely by vagrant shy-
sters must be overwhelmed by distaste for their own
anemic and stultified lives; and doubtless seek through
perversity a restoration to their self-esteem. Nor is the
matter improved, on the other hand, by those who, lost
in glorification of ancestors, declare that nearly all of the
pioneers were lords of foresight and courage, shepherded
by wives whose gaze was everlastingly full of visions.
The fable here is especially absurd when those writing of
pioneers are themselves the sons and daughters or the
grandchildren.
Most happily, as a matter of fact, the frontiers were
conquered by neither saint nor villain. The men and
women who pushed by thousands into the West were
quite like the people of this generation from whom all
physical frontiers have been taken. A few of the old-
timers came because they were unusually adventurous in
spirit; a larger number came because they were shoved
out to new anchors by privation and want; and others
came as crusaders to preach the particular creeds they
were trying to live by. It is quite pointless for us today
to extol those generations which moved westward, laying
resources in waste or building their empires: they were
neither villain nor hero except in the way that any
person may be when driven to face a frontier and try
to find his meaning in it. They were not, with rare excep-
tions, even aware that they were laying the foundations
for the future of a huge territory: they were trying to
make a living, to survive, quite as these are the matters
which engage the wits and energies of those who have
come after them. And it is equally pointless to call them
marauders and thieves : in a primitive struggle to survive
there is no time for amenities. The men and women who
blazed the trails and built forts and laid open the mines
AN ESSAY IN IDAHO HISTORY 19
and the forests had zest and vitality, and there are no
virtues more indispensable than those.
Of the persons who penetrated the unknown regions,
none were more adventurous of spirit or less greedy of
purpose than the explorers. It was Lewis and Clark and
their party who were the first white men to enter what is
now Idaho ; and it seems only plain fact to declare that the
epic of their journey has hardly been surpassed in Ameri-
can annals. From the time they left St. Louis with a keel-
boat and two Mackinaw pirogues until they looked at the
broad Columbia, they faced perils with resourcefulness
and courage and with little complaint. Their intrepid
undertaking is so bright a chapter in history that it needs
no embellishment with legend, nor does it serve any pur-
pose to canonize the memory of the Indian woman who
acted in some small degree as their guide. From Mandan in
North Dakota they were accompanied by Sacajawea, the
Shoshoni woman who had long ago been stolen by the
Crows and taken eastward; and it is from the name of
her captors and not because she tripped lightly on her
toes that she has passed into legend as the Bird Woman.
Sacajawea rendered a service to white men, and has suf-
fered under quaint indignities ever since. It seems not to
have occurred to historians that she might have had as
her only purpose in accompanying the party a wish to be
restored to her people, and that all of her fabulous escapes
from grizzlies and rattlesnakes were perhaps not related
at all to the desire of Captain Lewis to reach the Colum-
bia. Today she stands bright and terrible in legend as the
Bird Woman who understood what President Jefferson
wanted and led the invaders to her homeland so that the
greed of the Hudson's Bay Company could follow.
Lewis and Clark saw that fur-bearing animals were
so thick they were in one another's way, but the fur com-
panies did not follow at once. Military posts had to be
built along the explored routes, and a good many Indians
had to be killed or bribed or driven out. It was David
Thompson who got there first. He built Kalispel House
20 IDAHO
on Lake Pend d'Oreille, the first fort in what was to be-
come Idaho, and held thriving control over all the animals
in the Columbia and its tributaries until another English
company came awake to what it was missing. But the
North West Company, managed by Donald McKenzie,
merged with Hudson's Bay in 1821, and together they
slaughtered the furred beasts and outraged the Indians
until 1846. After the merger, Hudson's Bay held a
monopoly for many years on all the trapping trade be-
tween Puget Sound and the headwaters of the Missouri.
Its district overlord, now known variously as the Father
of Oregon, Monarch of the Northwest Country, or plain
John McLoughlin was as astonishing a mixture of virtue
and villainy as ever laid an iron hand on everything he
touched. He was, like Brigham Young, an aggressive and
somewhat terrifying genius who built empires as easily
as most men build dreams. If he could not buy his rivals
out, he exterminated them. And later, after devastating a
large part of the animals in the north, he smelled profits
southward and established Fort Boise in 1834. Two years
later he bought Fort Hall to destroy his competitors
there. Nathaniel Wyeth, another early Idahoan, says
McLoughlin had good business methods; and doubtless
he had, because his trappers took as many as eighty
thousand beaver pelts from Snake River in a season, and
his rivals quaked when they heard him speak.
When Mr. John Jacob Astor decided that he wanted
some of the profits from fur, he discovered that wanting
them was one thing and getting them was another. His
first ship around Cape Horn was wrecked, and the crew
of the second was set upon by Indians and scalped. After
an expedition to the Boise River was destroyed, the Astor
interests — the American Fur Company, of which the
Pacific Company was a part — refused to compete with
Hudson's Bay and the Indians and confined their fur trade
to areas east of the Rocky Mountains. The first successful
commercial enterprise in what is now Idaho was that of
the Rocky Mountain Fur Company under General William
AN ESSAY IN IDAHO HISTORY 21
Ashley and Major Andrew Henry; but instead of estab-
lishing trading posts, this company had an annual ren-
dezvous at Pierre's Hole (now Teton Basin) to which
trappers came to barter pelts and gather supplies. This
rendezvous, like any other in early days, was a carnival of
drunkenness and brawls and sharp practice. To a Hud-
son's Bay employee, Wyeth wrote : "I have again to repeat
to you the advice which I before gave you not to come with
a small party to the American rendezvous. There are here
a great collection of scoundrels." There was a still larger
collection east of the rendezvous, and in 1834 the Astor
company forced the American out of business here. It
was this Wyeth himself who organized an expedition in
Boston and made the first continuous overland trip to
Vancouver, though his supply ship was wrecked in round-
ing the Horn. He established Fort Hall and went into
business for himself, but the competitive emphasis lay
too much in ambush and guns, and he was forced in 1836
to sell. The Missouri Company meanwhile had sent
Andrew Henry to the Snake River country, and there in
1810 Fort Henry was built near the present town of St.
Anthony. It was abandoned the next year and this com-
pany was practically extinct by 1822. Manuel Liza, its
founder, was accused of enticing Iroquois trappers from
their employers and persuading them to sell to him,
though in this matter historians do not agree. It is an
unimportant matter. No one could ever be credulous
enough to suppose that these barons of greed and sharp
wits gave much attention to scrupulous methods. Large
companies became larger and small companies went out of
business; and this, here or elsewhere in the West, is the
history of trapping : there was no time for gentleness and
there was no place for weaklings.
These hardy men who followed the explorers and pre-
ceded the miners were lusty freebooters whose only law
was the law of survival. As Chittenden points out in
The American Fur Trader of the Far West, the constant
study of each group was to forestall and outwit its rival,
22 IDAHO
to supplant one another in the good will of the tribes,
and to annihilate one another's plans or to mislead in
regard to routes, and to place every possible disadvantage
in the way of competitors. It was a tremendous epic of
wits and brawn; and Nature, who abhors a weakling as
much as a vacuum, had matters quite to her taste. The
early traders were content to camp along the rivers or
lakes and remember what they used to be; but after a
little while they were all bearded savages living close to
the earth and living mightily. In comparison with them,
the trappers back along the Missouri were dandified gen-
tlemen who were getting neurotic from want of profanity
and hardship, Washington Irving said no class of men
on earth led lives of more constant exertion and peril or
were so enamored of their occupation ; and he might have
added that the Indians were often apt students of the
profane and indefatigable invaders of their land.
The trappers were enamored because they were doing
a man's work in a way that the world is now rapidly for-
getting. More than half of these hard-fisted freebooters
were killed, but those who survived went right ahead
taking life with enormous relish and spending little time
grieving over what was gone. Many of them married
Indian maids ; and if the tribe said no, as likely as not the
girl was abducted and married anyway. And because these
men trapped only in late fall and early spring in regions
where the snow was deep, they had much time heavy
on their hands and no disposition to use it gently; and
because they usually set their traps with a rifle ready or
a companion standing guard, they grew accustomed to
danger and took a narrow escape in a day's stride. Henry
lost twenty-seven men on his first trip into the wilder-
ness; and of the two hundred men Wyeth started with,
only forty were alive at the end of three years. They died
from Indians, or infrequently from disease, or even from
starvation; but when not starving or murdering they
learned they could get a valuable fur for a ten-cent string
of beads; and with their greed whetted they graduated
AN ESSAY IN IDAHO HISTORY 23
from experimental trickery to bolder methods that more
expediently served their ends. To call them scoundrels is
to misunderstand them entirely. They were men fighting
against death and hunger and they fought with the
weapons that served them best. And more than that.
They were men standing four-square upon their ancient
heritage and their primitive rights, and in their plangent
power is recorded the early epic of Idaho's emergence
from a wilderness of Indians and beasts.
But the story is not alone one of mighty men who slew
animals by hundreds of thousands. Some of these early
brigands became as savage as men have ever been, and
not infrequently betrayed or butchered the red men when
they approached seeking peace. Captain Bonneville, one
of the hardiest of the early adventurers, gives instances,
one of which turns on Jim Bridger, long since a legendary
hero, who with his party sought trapping grounds in the
land of Blackfeet. When they came upon the Indians, a
chief drew near and extended his hand in greeting, but
Bridger thereupon cocked his rifle and was knocked off
his horse for his pains. Whether the story is true hardly
matters: it declares the temper of the times. Another
instance is a story of brutality on the part of white men
that many Indians would have been abashed to think of.
Bonneville sent a scout with twenty men to hunt on the
margin of the Crow country. The scout and his party
came to a Crow village, a notorious assortment of rogues
and horse thieves, and these persuaded most of the
scout's men to desert him and to sneak off with all the
horses and equipment. When the scout attempted to
retake the deserters, he was warned by the Crows that
the scamps were their friends ; whereupon, with the few
men who had remained loyal, the scout went to another
fort. Here, too, he learned, the white men were everlast-
ingly hotfooting it out of camp with whatever they could
steal. He went next up the Powder River to trap, and one
day, while the horses were grazing, two Indians rode into
camp. While they affected friendliness, the horses dis-
24 IDAHO
appeared, and the two Indians were at once made pris-
oners by the white men and threatened with death. The
robbers came back to bargain for the release of their
comrades and offered two horses for each man freed.
Upon learning that they would have to restore all their
booty, they deserted the prisoners and moved off with
most lamentable bowlings, and the prisoners were
dragged to a pyre and burned to death in plain view of
the fleeing pirates.
This story may be an extreme in white brutality, but
it is understandable inasmuch as these men were isolated
from the East with their mail going to Vera Cruz and
across to the Pacific and then out to the Hawaiian Islands
and then back to Vancouver and from there inland if there
was anyone to take it. They were men who were more
solitary by nature, as trappers are today, than any tribe
who went before them or came after, more courageous
than any save the explorers, and more resourceful than
any group that followed them into the forested empires.
They sank quickly to a rugged elemental level of eating
and sleeping and slaying their enemies ; and it was inevi-
table that missionaries should come to rebuke their zest
and confuse the Indians.
Missionaries then, as now, were of all kinds. Some of
them were earnest persons of courage and kindness who
wanted to convince the lusty trappers that they were
headed for the devil and to lift the Indians from their
anthropomorphic level. Many of the explorers and trap-
pers had already intermarried, and some of the Indians
had already heard of the Christian religion. Jason Lee
had accompanied Wyeth on his second journey into the
West and had held the first religious service (in what was
to be Idaho) at Fort Hall in 1834. In the next year the Rev-
erend Samuel Parker, sent out by the Dutch Reformed
Church of Ithaca, joined Marcus Whitman in St. Louis
and traveled with members of the American Fur Com-
pany to Green River. Here the need of the Indians was
so apparent that they decided to remain in the West.
AN ESSAY IN IDAHO HISTORY 25
Whitman returned to enlist volunteers, and Parker went
on to the Nez Perce country and thence to Walla Walla
where he chose a site for the Whitman Mission. While
traveling across country it is declared that he taught his
Indian companions the Ten Commandments and per-
suaded some of them to spurn polygamy and return to
their first wives. Precisely in what way this settled the
matter for their second and third wives is not divulged.
Whitman returned, meanwhile, with his wife and the
Spaldings, who established themselves at Lapwai Creek a
few miles above the present site of Lewiston. The Spald-
ings, husband and wife, were two missionaries who in
most instances were remarkably tolerant and wise : they
reached beyond empty ritual and instructed the red men
in home economics and agriculture and thoughtful living.
After the Spaldings up north had taught the Indians
to grow vegetables and fruits and to desert their lusty
deities, a colony of Mormons pushed northward out of
Utah and settled in a little valley which they named for
a king in the Book of Mormon. They built a fort of
planks and mud and settled down to make their homes.
Idaho historians usually place this colony among the mis-
sionaries, but these persons came to homestead and not to
argue. They were from that larger colony which had es-
tablished itself in the Salt Lake Valley under that great
and wise leader of men and movements named Brigham
Young. But Brigham Young and the Mormons generally
were not mystics or metaphysicians : they were pioneers
seeking homes and an opportunity to build a kingdom
beyond the reach of persecution wherein every man could
have as many wives as God and his own provisions would
allow. And it was a Mormon colony that founded Idaho's
first permanent settlement two years later. These per-
sons, imagining they were in Utah when they called their
village Franklin, made irrigation a fact in Idaho by build-
ing a canal three and a half miles long. They also estab-
lished in 1860, the year of their arrival, the first school for
white children within the present boundaries of the State.
26 IDAHO
There were other important missionaries in Idaho
besides the Spaldings. No one can doubt the sincerity of
most of them, nor, on the other hand, can anyone with
the welfare of his race at heart beheve that they achieved
much good. What missionaries did to the Indians, except
in rare instances, was to befuddle their wits and make them
more amenable to subsequent degradation. It was not only
that Father De Smet impressed upon the Flatheads the
notion that Sunday was a day of rest and so encouraged
them to greater laziness than they had formerly been dis-
posed toward. It was not only that Samuel Parker was
abandoned to the ironic circumstances of seeing his red
congregation leap up right in the middle of a sermon and
take to their weapons when an elk came in sight ; and it is
doubtful if he helped matters later when, after having re-
buked them for working on Sunday, he sat down with them
to feed on the beast they had slain. Nor was it only, as the
shrewd W. A. Goulder points out in his reminiscences,
that too many of the missionaries "seemed sometimes
purposely to have placed some pasteboard lions in their
path for the simple pleasure of kicking them out of the
way." It may not even be quite enough to add, as he does,
that we must forgive zeal so fierce that it is not always
accompanied "by knowledge required to justify and dig-
nify its workings."
Matters would have been improved if Protestants,
Catholics, and Mormons had lived in peace with one an-
other, all seeking the same ends. But much of their work
was vitiated by petty suspicions and jealousies, and it
takes more than pious historians who gloss the facts and
expand the fictions to make some of these early mission-
aries look any bigger than the persons they came to in-
struct. It is the first white child born in what was to be-
come Idaho, Eliza Spalding Warren herself, who declares
that her father and Whitman believed that Indians were
incited to malevolence by Catholic priests ; and even Spald-
ing, greatest of the lot, recorded the spiritual limits within
which he worked when he called the baptism by a Jesuit
AN ESSAY IN IDAHO HISTORY 27
priest of "blood-stained" children (after the Whitman
massacre) one of the vilest deeds in history. It may be true
that he accused Jesuits of abducting unsuspecting girls for
their "large and flourishing schools throughout the coun-
try" ; and it may be, too, that Catholics suspected Protes-
tants of malpractices equally petty; and both, of course,
absurdly fancied that Mormons were recruiting girls for
polygamous harems. It is difl?icult to believe that men so
far from the meaning of God themselves could have
brought to the Indians a larger vision of humanity and
fellowship.
But if, on the whole, they did not, the fault was not
wholly theirs. These simple-minded red men heard the
Sermon on the Mount on one day and on the next were
got drunk or robbed or attacked by persons from that
race with which the Sermon had been a byword for nine-
teen centuries. And later, treaties added confusion to
confusion as the Indians were steadily driven from their
ancient homes to the poorer lands set aside for them.
Soldiers were brought in, as in Clearwater district, to
force them out and subject them; and these soldiers were
often, as Kate McBeth points out in The Nez Perces Since
Lewis and Clark, a demoralizing influence and helped to
bring this tribe to a degradation it had never known be-
fore. Drinking and gambling and fighting were the rule
of the day and the night ; and added to these were the
preachments of brotherhood and good will which made
incredible ironies of the whole picture. "Such a mix-up
of heathenism, white men's vices, and religion was per-
haps never known before." It is folly, on the one hand, to
grow sentimental over the Indians. They were not noble
savages. They were not thriftless vagabonds. It is folly,
on the other hand, to pretend that the early missionaries,
no matter how well-intentioned, were able to achieve more
good than harm.
And it is little wonder that after awhile some of the
Indians went on the warpath, and it is amusing to read
what some historians have to say of the matter. An attack
28 IDAHO
by Indians, they will tell you, was an outrage, a treachery,
or a plain and terrible massacre; but attacks by white
warriors were courageous stands against howling and
bloodthirsty maniacs. The Indians, fighting to retain
what they had owned for ages, were unmitigated rascals ;
but the whites, fighting to possess what did not belong to
them, were splendid soldiers of God. The Indians, often
driven to actual starvation, and striking back desperately
with arrow or tomahawk, the only weapons they knew,
were yelping and unvarnished assassins ; but the whites,
eager to lay the camas meadows under agriculture, were
approved by all the centuries of plunder in which right
has been on the stronger side. And not only that: those
Indians who, deserting their own traditions and people,
came to the aid of the whites are today commemorated in
monuments; but the few whites who went over to the
Indians are held in unspeakable infamy.
The Coeur d'Alenes and Spokanes had boasted for
years that they had never shed the blood of a white man.
But they were driven to it by persistent invasions of
their country, and in one battle they united with the
Palouse and Yakima tribes and came within an inch
of exterminating a hundred and fifty-five men under
Colonel E. J. Steptoe. Then an expedition was sent to
punish these Indians who had resisted invasion ; and after
many were killed and wounded at the battle of Four
Lakes, Colonel George Wright rounded up all the Indians'
horses and slaughtered the entire herd of eight hundred.
Thereupon the Indians surrendered and the colonel took
a chief and several others as hostages and made it plain
that if the Indians didn't like the ordeal of being civi-
lized he would return and destroy the tribes. The colonel
then went to the Palouse country and hanged several
leaders there, took hostages, and made threats that almost
shook the Columbian Plateau. It has been declared that the
colonel was a successful Indian fighter — and there really
seems to be little reason to doubt it. "Without the loss of a
man he had defeated the Indians, who sustained heavy
AN ESSAY IN IDAHO HISTORY 29
losses, confiscated their horses and cattle, executed eleven
murderers, and captured large stores of supplies."
The Nez Perce Indians had always been friendly to-
ward the whites. The more, in fact, one reads in the
shameful history of warfare against Indians, the more
one is impressed not by the treachery of the red men but
by their credulity. They were children. They did not
know that for countless centuries wars and persecutions,
greed and torture, had masqueraded in the name of civi-
lization, and they did not foresee that the white men who
came to convert them would remain to seize their lands.
After the whites came into the fertile valley of this tribe,
Indian ponies actually starved to death for want of
forage. Government agents, meanwhile, had repeatedly
promised to move settlers out of the Yakima territory,
and the Yakima tribe strove to enlist the support of other
tribes in a general war. The Nez Perces refused. The
chief of the tribe was talked into selling the land of his
people but later resisted yielding it, and President Grant
returned it to the Indians. But two years later the White
Father repudiated his promise, and the Indian Bureau
tried to force the tribe to move to the Lapwai Reserva-
tion. The wise and friendly old chieftain, finding himself
dying, asked his son never to give up the land of his
birth and home. That son was the famous Chief Joseph.
He sought, even after one of his subordinates was thrown
into jail, to restrain his people from violence; but when
the final day of departure came, some of the more coura-
geous Indians began what a historian called a "horrible
series of murders" — by which he doubtless means that
they were doing their best to slay their enemies. Then a
Captain Perry marched in with a small army and was
outsmarted in White Bird Canyon: his detachment was
cut in two and one part was almost wiped out. "Lieutenant
Theller and eighteen brave comrades were caught in the
trap and killed." At this point, Too-lah, the Nez Perce
traitor, came on the scene and rode twenty-six miles to
procure aid for some whites awaiting attack in a stockade.
30 IDAHO
One historian says it is difficult to imagine how "she
could suppress her feelings of loyalty to members of her
own people" — and it does seem difficult.
General Howard now came with several hundred men.
He had a job to do, and he learned that it was to be the most
exciting job in his busy lifetime. One commentator says
the Indians, now fighting with their backs to the Clear-
water River, held their ground "with an obstinancy that
was surprising" — and it seems a pity that they should
have been so stubborn merely because white men wanted
their fertile valley. It seems a pity that the bloodcurdling
rascals did not all jump into the river and drown them-
selves. But let us suppose for a moment that an Indian
historian is writing of this desperate battle and this fa-
mous retreat.
There was a band of only three hundred Indians, with their
backs to the Clearwater, with twice that number of well-armed
soldiers facing them, and with a poor assortment of weapons in
their hands. They were fighting for their homeland where they
had lived for centuries and where their dead were buried. They
had been lied to by the Great Father in Washington; they had
been robbed and tricked by white men ever since these came to
their country; and they were now being driven to a cheap and
barren home that they did not love and did not want. . . .
The white invaders with their terrible ghostly faces and their
brutal instruments of death fought with surprising obstinacy and
strove with all their power to murder us; and though we were
outnumbered two to one we fought with the courage of a beaten
people and time after time resisted every bloodthirsty attack. . . .
And when at last we saw that our cause was hopeless, we slipped
away and set forth in the night with no home to turn to, no friends
anywhere. For weeks we fled, and there were three different armies
of these vengeful white invaders trailing us and trying to trap us;
but we had a great chief, our Joseph, and for weeks he outwitted
three armies and made them look like a bunch of lost boys. But in our
long flight of thirteen hundred miles, barefooted, over rock and stick
and thorn, ragged and starved and sick, hopelessly outnumbered and
defeated but never subdued, we had no place to go, no road that
was ours. Our feet left blood in our tracks, but day after day,
night after night, we marched, wishing only to be left alone to our
birthplace and our rights
And when at last we had to surrender and accept the gall of the
white man's triumph and the barren land which he himself did not
want, we went forth in rags and they did not recognize us. But we
were proud and still unconquered. And as we stood there, the
AN ESSAY IN IDAHO HISTORY 31
skeletons who had survived, our Joseph gave to those unashamed
assassins of red men the most magnificent rebuke that has ever been
flung by a defenseless people at their barbarous conquerors :
From where the sun now stands, I shall fight no more!
But that would be a very temperate account from the
pen of an Indian historian. He would see the coming of
white men as a scourge, a nameless and invincible terror.
And it is time to admit that Chief Joseph was a great
soldier and that the Nez Perce Indians gave a lesson to
their conquerors in heroism and fortitude in conflict, and
pride and dignity in defeat.
Idaho had other Indian wars, most important of which
was with the Bannacks who were guilty of resenting the in-
vasion of their camas meadows. But meanwhile the gold
seekers had come in. With few exceptions, the trappers
were hand-picked and somewhat solitary men who sought
the farthest reaches of the frontiers and assumed a dan-
gerous life because they loved it. Quite different from
them in many respects were the miners. Some of these
were men not driven by obsessions and fevers, but a lot
of them were minor rascals of various breeds — nomadic
knights seeking pots of gold, petty thieves and shysters,
and restless unfortunates who had succumbed to greed.
Of the thousands who poured into Idaho after the dis-
covery of gold, a large part was a feverish and floating
horde who had already rushed from place to place with a
vision of wealth bright and terrible in their eyes. Some of
them, diverted from their quest, organized gangs and
plundered stages and stores and trains, and others were
predatory scoundrels who worked darkly and alone. Of
the banded packs, the Plummer gang in Montana was the
most dangerous, and typical of such bandits was Cherokee
Bob. After killing two soldiers in Walla Walla, he fled to
Lewiston where he became leader of an assortment of cut-
throats, and then moved to Florence. There one night he
defended his mistress, a harlot who had been thrown out
of a hall, and was slain by another bandit as notorious as
himself. There were hundreds of Cherokee Bobs in Idaho
seventy years ago.
32 IDAHO
It has been said by some Idaho historians that these
thousands who rushed pell-mell into the State were unusu-
ally intelligent on the whole, and that many of them were
educated. One historian even solemnly declares that their
discussions around campfires would often have been a
credit to dignified deliberative bodies. But these attempts
to transform the early miners into a bunch of gentlemen
who sedately panned their gold and then meditated on
Aristotle are a gross injustice to an army of hell-roaring
and money-mad men. With exceptions, they were a rough
and blasphemous crew who swore like pirates and drank
whiskey as if they had been nursed on it, though now and
then one, it is true, got off by himself to brood over such
trivial matters as destiny and fate, or took to himself a
wife and minded his own business. But the majority of
them laid into life with furious appetites, and it is a most
lugubrious irony to dress up these tough-palmed, unmoral
roustabouts to look like the men today who fetch the milk
and play bridge and lead the house dog around the block.
Some of these miners were, of course, men of prey
from the time they entered the Western country, and
others learned to be after they got there. And these grew
in number until lawlessness in varying degrees prevailed
in every mining camp, and hardly a man anywhere dared
venture forth with his bag of gold dust in his hands.
After awhile the vigilantes came, and scoundrels of all
kinds were found hanging by their necks from bridge
beam and tree. Even the farmers in the Boise Basin came
alive to fury and pursued a gang of marauders clear into
the Grand Ronde Valley of Oregon; and "if any casu-
alties occurred, they were all on one side." The outraged
citizens of the Payette Valley organized and decreed three
modes of punishment : banishment for the apprentices in
the trade, flogging for those who had begun to prosper in
the ways of villainy, and hanging for those who had be-
come masters of murder. When the Stewart brothers in-
discreetly published throughout the area the boast that
there weren't enough vigilantes to chastise them, they
AN ESSAY IN IDAHO HISTORY 33
soon found themselves hanging from a brand-new
scaffold.
These avengers w^ere chiefly farmers who lived a
quieter life than that of the miners for whom the brothel
and gaming table were as familiar as the beds they slept
in. And the irascible temper of these philosophers is to
be seen in a desperate war that broke out south of Boise
between the Ida Elmore and Golden Chariot Companies
over boundaries of their claims. Scorning compromise,
the managers of these mines hired a few dozen gentle and
book-loving thugs to engage in a pitched battle and fight
it out. The Golden Chariot army stormed their opponents,
and the owner of this company, while too curiously peek-
ing at his foe, was shot through the head. During the
ensuing night these lusty gentlemen blazed away at one
another and kept it up for three days until a squad of
cavalry was sent out from Boise. And two days later,
after hostilities had ceased, one of the survivors was sit-
ting in front of the Idaho Hotel, doubtless pondering a
volume of Herbert Spencer, when a feudist from the oppo-
site camp, one Marion More, accompanied by several gen-
tlemen who preferred the works of Hume, came up to
continue the quarrel. More was shot dead, and the man
who had been sitting in meditation later died of his
wounds. When even the owners of the mines went on the
warpath and hired a small army of idle freebooters to
fight their battles, it seems a little beyond the facts to
suppose that the common run of miners were gun-shy
introverts whose learned discussions troubled the Royal
Society of England.
They were too busy living to have time for vagaries.
Perhaps they did read now and then ; and if so, it may be
that they saw in the Boise Neivs how "Justice Walker
fined himself five dollars on Thursday for becoming angry
in court and swearing at an attorney," or perhaps they
saw that red drawers were only three dollars a pair or
that Eureka whiskey was only six dollars a gallon where-
as kerosene was nine. Or perhaps they read in the
34 IDAHO
Statesman that General Crook was on his way to Harney
Lake and "had gobbled a few bucks on the way" but ex-
pected to find Indians more abundant in a less hunted
region ; or that the "most jovially reckless gentleman who
ever sat in a gubernatorial chair" was Governor Bennett,
who marched into a saloon and turned to those present
to say, "Is there a here who will take a drink
with the Governor of Idaho ?" After Idaho Territory had
rid itself of such a rascal as Brayman, it was inclined to
look upon Bennett as a man almost scrupulous in his
gentleness.
Gold was discovered in the Clearwater country in
1860, and rich strikes followed in the Salmon River and
Florence areas, in Boise Basin, in the Owyhee terrain, in
the Coeur d'Alenes, and elsewhere. The wilderness of
trappers yielded to an era of lusty mining towns, and for
years the territory knew little more than the feverish
industry of thousands of men exploring the earth for its
treasure, and hundreds preying upon them. In 1863 the
Idaho Territory was created, and the temper of the time
is to be found summarized in its Governors. The Presi-
dent, in fact, had difficulty in finding Governors who
would go to "Idaho," and some of them, like Gilman
Marston, never appeared at all, "having got lost or stolen
on the way out. Alexander H. Conner, from the Lord only
knows where, was the next venture of the President but
for some unknown reason he, too, failed to appear."
Former Governor Hawley next surmises that President
Grant was growing impatient over the vanishing of his
appointees and insisted that the next one actually reach
the Territory and look around. This man saw so many
educated young fellows sitting on their heels that he
shook the dust of Idaho out of his shoes and disappeared
in a week. William Wallace, still another, was bolder, but
is said not to have shown even ordinary cunning in his
crookedness; and still another, who signed himself as
Caleb Lyon of Lyonsdale, specialized in ebullient rhetoric
and died while he was being investigated for misappro-
AN ESSAY IN IDAHO HISTORY 35
priation of funds for the Nez Perce Indians. Of still
another, David W. Ballard, Hawley says he was a good-
natured sort of fellow "who drew his salary with com-
mendable regularity and did little else to inform people
that he held high office or was alive at all." And while
the Governors were disappearing or swindling or hiding
behind their salaries, the legislature was racking its
brains over the fact that the capital was up in the Pan-
handle and most of the Territory was lying beyond impas-
sable regions south of it. Or it was prohibiting marriage
between whites and Chinese, or it was taxing Chinese four
dollars a month to live in the Territory or, strangely
enough, as early as 1885, it was appropriating money for
an insane asylum. Many things must have happened dur-
ing those years if so many persons were violently crazy
that an asylum was needed five years before the Territory
was admitted to the Union. And many things did happen.
The lusty ripsnorting extremes of it now lie quietly under
the almost forgotten graveyards in the dozens of ghost
towns that are today the decaying monuments to twenty
violent years.
History shifted from trapping to boom towns, and
then came the sheep and cattlemen, and the feuds broke
upon a new scene. Cattle came first, arriving in herds
from Utah and Wyoming, and for awhile Idaho was a
huge cattle ranch. Thousands of beef were driven east-
ward to Cheyenne and shipped before the railroads came,
and sheep with them, and another war was on. It is true
that dead sheepherders were sometimes found in lonely
places and that cowboys now and then toppled from their
steeds because of guns fired from ambush ; but even the
most diligent search has not found a single heroine who
stood by during these lively times to ride down Goose
Creek or Rattlesnake Gulch and shoot the horse from
under the villain and faint in the hero's arms. The women
of Idaho seem to have missed spectacular opportunities
here. As a matter of fact, though, there were no villains
and no heroes: Idaho Territory was a huge pasture, and
36 IDAHO
two factions fought to possess it and they fought for
the love of fighting and with the weapons that served
them best.
And besides, Idaho was now growing up and becom-
ing an empire of its own and lawlessness and exuberance
were slowly yielding to discipline. For a long while it had
been known as the Columbia River country and later as
the Oregon country, of both of which it was a part. Ore-
gon had been admitted to statehood before Idaho had
become more than a vague geographical area of Indians
and trappers, and even when it became a Territory of its
own it included most of what is now Montana and Wyo-
ming. It did not become a State until 1890, the forty-third
of the Union, just after the railroads and ranchers had
definitely marked its transition from the old West to the
new. After running through five magnificently vital
decades of trapping and three of mining, it emerged to
precise boundaries and comparative serenity and settled
down to the job of building its kingdom. Most of its val-
leys were rapidly homesteaded by sturdy stock chiefly
from the Middle Western States ; its surviving thugs were
driven out or thrown into jails ; and its great mines and
forests were laid open. Idaho is no longer a frontier, but
the frontier still lives in countless ways within its borders.
It is to be seen modified and disciplined and slowly chang-
ing in every one of the cities and towns ; and in a few of
these the old spirit is now and then resurrected and walks
in thunderous zest down the streets.
But the frontiers are gone, no matter how vividly they
still live in memory or how poignant their slow vanishings
may be from end to end of the State. The building of rail-
roads, the coming of the cattlemen and sheepmen, and the
homesteading of the valleys and plains have effected the
transition from the frontier to the Idaho of today. The
Northern Pacific laid its rails across the Panhandle in
1880-82, and the Union Pacific crossed the southern part
of the State in 1882-84. In the latter year the Coeur
d'Alene country was the scene of one of the wildest stam-
AN ESSAY IN IDAHO HISTORY 37
pedes in the history of mining, and is still the most impor-
tant mining area in the State.
The development of agriculture came later. The north-
ern half of Idaho has reclaimed much logged-off land to
become one of the most productive areas in the West, and
the Snake River Valley and its tributary basins have pros-
pered under the broad sweep of reclamation projects. In
1894 the Carey Act gave to each of the States 1,000,000
acres with the provision that the land was to be irrigated ;
and those acres Idaho has irrigated together with many
more. Under the Reclamation Act of 1902 the State has
developed the Minidoka, King Hill, and Boise Projects.
Lands too far removed from water or for which water has
not been available have been cultivated as dry farms, given
chiefly to wheat and other grains.
Idaho is still a very young State. Because its social de-
velopment remains largely in the future, it has little to
boast of in the arts, in education, and in names of men who
have made history. Of the latter it has, of course, William
E. Borah, dean at this writing (1936) of the U. S. Senate,
and doubtless one of the great statesmen of his time. Since
that memorable day when Borah opposed Clarence Dar-
row in an Idaho courtroom, he has become a national
figure and his name and Idaho have become, in the world .
at large, almost synonyms.
I
I
I
I
I
n
HISTORY OF IDAHO INDIANS
!
I
II
HISTORY OF IDAHO INDIANS
LITTLE is known of that legendary period of Indian
history prior to the coming of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition to Idaho in 1805. All Indians were steadily
being pushed westward, and through wars between vari-
ous tribes had divided the entire Western coast among
themselves. Those residing in what is now Idaho were
too much broken into small and scattered groups to act
as whole tribes or nations, and their history other than
a few exceptional events relates to petty strifes, local
disturbances, and the robbing and massacre of white emi-
grants who were dispossessing them of their lands. These
make the facts of their history, but the story itself, like
that of the Indian people as a whole, is the tragic one of
a race robbed of its birthright.
When Lewis and Clark made the first historically
known contact with Indian tribes of this region, the ex-
plorers were for the most part received in friendly fash-
ion. It has been said that the Shoshonis were friendly
because the party was guided by Sacajawea, a Shoshonean
woman and the sister of their chief, but it is true that
members of the Nez Perce tribe were also friendly and
assisted the party in every way possible. Gifts were
exchanged, feasts given, and the extreme good will of the
Nez Perces shown by the fact that six chiefs accompanied
the expedition as far as Riparia, Washington, to protect
as well as guide the explorers.
Almost immediately on the trail of Lewis and Clark
42 IDAHO
came the fur traders, who in the majority of cases were
also received with friendliness even though they were
becoming- rich at the expense of the Indians. The traders
attempted to promote this friendship because it was to
their advantage to do so, and the Indians responded be-
cause they had not yet realized what this invasion was
to mean to them. Although the tribes were at times
troublesome, there were few catastrophes at all compa-
rable to those after the settlers began pouring into the
region.
It was the trappers and traders who first attempted to
substitute Christianity for the religions of the red men.
Although decidedly not a religious group, these adven-
turers interested the Indians in their religion and paved
the way for the missionaries, of whom Reverend H. H.
Spalding was perhaps the most successful. Spalding
cemented the friendship of the Nez Perces, already dem-
onstrated in their dealings with the explorers, and taught
the Indian men to till the soil, while his wife instructed
the Indian women in the arts of housekeeping. The Catho-
lics were a strong influence on the religious-minded tribes
of northern Idaho — so much so that in 1831 four Nez
Perce Indians made a trip to St. Louis to see the priests
there and obtain more information on the white man's
religion. Almost every denomination sent missionaries
to the Indians of the Idaho territory, their various efforts
often resulting in confusion because these simple people
could not understand the differences in creed. Hard, too,
for them to understand was the apparent lack of co-or-
dination between the principles preached by the mission-
aries and the practices carried out by the white settlers.
It was difficult for the Indians to comprehend why
these white men and women could come into this land
which they considered rightfully theirs by heritage, and
settle on it, usurping their hunting and camas fields.
Little by little the most fertile valleys and the best graz-
ing lands were being occupied by the whites, and the
Indians, while experiencing the pinch of hunger, were
HISTORY OF IDAHO INDIANS 43
expected to retire gracefully to barren lands allotted them.
It is true that there were predatory bands of Indians who
scalped and raided for the pure love of killing, but for
the most part the outrages perpetrated upon the whites
came as a direct result of the Indians' attempt to stop the
onrushing flood of settlers who were simply moving in
without asking permission.
Although all Indian tribes of the Northwest were be-
coming alarmed at this invasion, the Nez Perces remained
steadfast friends of the white men. It was only this
friendly and peaceable attitude that saved the settlers
from being wiped out in 1855 when the Yakimas tried
to enlist Nez Perce support in a general uprising of the
Northwest tribes. This hostility on the part of North-
west Indians was caused by the Government's attempt to
arrange a treaty providing for the sale of lands of all
these tribes. Fighting a losing battle as always, they
finally agreed to surrender their lands, and two treaties
were signed in 1855. A treaty with the Kutenai, Pend
d'Oreille, and Flathead Indians gave them lands in Idaho
and Montana for a reservation; while one with the Nez
Perces defined for them a reservation including specified
lands in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
These treaties were negotiated successfully, but
troubles with the Indians in that region were not at an
end. In 1858 settlers in the West became apprehensive
when members of the Coeur d'Alene, Palouse, Spokane,
and Yakima tribes attacked Colonel Steptoe of the fort
at Walla Walla after he had set out to investigate the
murder of two miners by Palouse Indians. Since all these
tribes had been peaceable in the past, this attack made
the whites realize the seriousness of the situation. A
force under the leadership of Colonel George Wright was
immediately sent out to punish the Indians, and the first
battle was fought at Four Lakes, about sixteen miles
southwest of the present Spokane. After routing the In-
dian band and slaughtering their horses, Colonel Wright
pressed on to the Coeur d'Alene Mission where the fright-
44 IDAHO
ened Coeur d'Alene Indians were forced to agree to terms
which he set forth. Moving on to the Palouse country, he
dictated terms to them as well, and returned to Fort
Walla Walla with such a complete victory that the Gov-
ernment felt it an opportune time to remove the Indians
to reservations and so protect the increasing numbers
of white settlers.
Steps were first taken to confine the Nez Perces, be-
cause the treaty of 1855, never satisfactory to the In-
dians, had become most unsatisfactory to the whites
after it was learned that gold had been discovered in
this region. In 1863 the whites accordingly attempted to
negotiate a treaty by which the Nez Perces would cede
back these lands and accept a smaller reservation in the
Lapwai Valley. Old Chief Joseph, their leader, had signed
the treaty of 1855, but when the Government wished him
to agree to giving up the fertile Wallowa Valley, he be-
came less amenable and refused to give up any of his
lands. A direct result of old Chief Joseph's stand was a
division in the Nez Perce ranks by which two factions
sprang up, known as the "Treaty" and "Nontreaty" In-
dians; but his rebellion against the greediness of the
whites was later to bring far-reaching and more serious
consequences.
Indians everywhere throughout the State were be-
coming increasingly restless as hordes of white settlers
began usurping their lands, and Indian outbreaks became
common, although for the most part they were local in
character and did not develop into what could be called a
war. These outrages took the form of massacres of lone
wagon trains, of which conspicuous in early Idaho history
is the attack on the Ward party in August of 1854. This
train of twenty-three members was attacked by a band of
Snake Indians about twenty-five miles from old Fort
Boise; all of the men were killed, the children killed or
captured, and the women taken to the Indian camp a mile
away. The only survivors of the atrocity were two of the
Ward boys who succeeded in escaping into the brush even
HISTORY OF IDAHO INDIANS 45
though they were wounded and near unconsciousness. A
rescue party from old Fort Boise reported that the details
of the crime were most horrifying, and an eye-witness
tells us that "no pen could describe the fiendish savagery
displayed in the torture and treatment of the victims."
Here was an instance of the Indians retaliating in the
only way known to them.
Such attacks were common in southern Idaho during
the years from 1860 to the late 70's, and it became neces-
sary to provide military protection for the long trains of
wagons moving westward across the Snake River plains.
Lone settlements were at the mercy of the Indians, and
particularly harassed was a small colony of Mormons who
had made the first permanent settlement in the State at
Franklin near the southern border of Idaho. Brigham
Young had tried to achieve friendly relations with the
Bannacks by feeding them and refusing to quarrel with
them, but this policy made the warlike tribesmen over-
bearing, and in the winter of 1862-63 their menace be-
came so great that the terrified pioneers were forced to
appeal to Colonel P. E. Connor at Fort Douglas, Utah. In
January of 1863, troops sent to protect the Franklin
families found the Indians encamped at Battle Creek,
near the site of the present town of Oxford, and engaged
in battle with them. Colonel Connor answered criticisms
regarding this action by saying that it was impossible to
surround members of the tribe and capture them without
bloodshed because of the Indians' strategic position. The
Bannacks fought with ferocity and desperation, but were
finally severely defeated with a loss of 224 men. This
battle was an important one to the State because it put an
end to severe Indian trouble in that section and was fol-
lowed in the same year by treaties made in Utah with the
eastern and western bands of Shoshoni Indians, recogniz-
ing their claims to lands of which part lay in Idaho.
At this time all dealings with the Indians were carried
on by treaty, and each tribe was recognized as an inde-
pendent nation. These treaties were more often broken
46 IDAHO
than not since Washington was far distant and Indian
Superintendents had too much territory under their juris-
diction effectively to prevent treaty breaking. With cal-
lous indifference, more and more white settlers moved
into lands that were set aside for the red men by treaty,
and the original owners were helpless to combat peace-
ably this intrusion when Government agents seemed blind
to their rights and repeatedly broke promises made.
In most cases the Government had been successful in
persuading the Indians to give up their lands and go to
reservations which had been estabhshed as rapidly as
possible. In 1869 the Fort Hall Reservation was set aside
by President Grant for the Indians of southern Idaho
with especial mention of the Shoshonis and Bannacks. In
1872 the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington had
been set aside for the Kutenai, Pend d'Oreille, Colville,
and Spokane Indians, part of whom had resided in Idaho.
In 1867 an attempt had been made to provide a reserva-
tion for the Coeur d'Alene and Spokane Indians, but the
Coeur d'Alenes refused to accept the reservation as desig-
nated, and it was not until 1873 that the Coeur d'Alene
Reservation was officially set aside. In 1875 the Lemhi
Indian Reservation was set aside for Tendoy's band of
the Shoshonis, Bannacks, and Tukuarikas, and in 1877
the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, partly in Nevada
and partly in Idaho, was set aside for the Shoshonis and
Paiutes. Successful in the matter of these reservations,
the authorities were annoyed because they had been un-
able to persuade the nontreaty Nez Perces to accept the
treaty of 1863 and settle on the Lapwai Reservation,
giving up the land previously held by them.
The reservation was a bone of contention for many
years. Old Chief Joseph died in 1872, but before his
death he had made his son Joseph, the new chief, promise
never to give up the Wallowa. The valley was ceded back
to the Indians in 1873, but was taken again by the Gov-
ernment in 1875. In 1877 a final attempt was made to
force the nontreaty Nez Perces living there to move to
HISTORY OF IDAHO INDIANS 47
the Lapwai Reservation in Idaho, surrendering com-
pletely their rights to the valley of the Wallowa. A three-
day council was called at Lapwai, the disagreements cul-
minating in the arrest of the Indians' holy man, who had
firmly announced that he would not go on the new reser-
vation. Although the angry Indians wished to make war
immediately on their oppressors, Chief Joseph restrained
them and it was agreed that they should move to the res-
ervation within thirty days.
Just as Government officials were congratulating
themselves on their easy victory, and on the last day
allotted to the Indians before removing to the reservation,
a number of their band under the leadership of Chief
Joseph swooped down on the unsuspecting settlers of the
Salmon River country and began a wholesale butchering
that was so horrible that protection was asked of United
States troops stationed at Fort Lapwai. On June 14, 1877,
Captain Perry was sent out with two cavalry companies
to quell the disorders, but he was severely defeated and
had one company almost annihilated in the battle of
White Bird Canyon on June 17. This crushing defeat
made General Howard aware that more strenuous meas-
ures had to be taken. Accordingly, he assembled a force
of about six hundred, and with himself as leader, set out
to capture Joseph and his braves. He finally located the
band camped on the Clearwater River southeast of Kam-
iah, and after a two-day battle in which there were many
killed on each side, he managed to dislodge them from
their strategic position and force their retreat.
It was Joseph's plan at this time to take members of
his tribe across the border into Canada, and he began a
masterly retreat over the Lolo Trail, attempting to shake
oflf his pursuers while hampered with women, children,
and the old. He was too clever a man for the white sol-
diers, and would have been successful in reaching the
border had not General Howard telegraphed troops in
Montana to intercept the Indian band. Two battles were
fought, August 9 and September 13, in both of which
48 IDAHO
Joseph outgeneraled the whites and escaped. Finally, on
September 29 at the battle of Bear Paw Mountain only a
few miles from the border, Colonel Nelson A. Miles with
twice as many soldiers as there were Indians defeated the
indomitable chief and forced his surrender. An agree-
ment was made whereby the remnant of the band was to
be returned to the Lapwai Reservation, but the whites,
still afraid of Joseph's power, refused to keep the agree-
ment and transferred the band first to Fort Leavenworth
and later to Indian Territory in the South. This breach of
faith was not rectified until much later when, after count-
less petitions to Washington by the homesick band, they
were returned to the Northwest and placed on the Col-
ville Reservation.
This, the Nez Perce War of 1877, was succeeded the
following year by an uprising of the Bannack Indians,
who had never really settled on the Fort Hall Reserva-
tion and who were wandering at will over southern Idaho.
Primary cause of the war was the Indians' resentment
because white settlers appropriated the Camas Prairie
and let their cattle destroy the camas root, which was an
important article of diet to the Indians. It was their
custom to migrate each summer to the Camas Prairie,
and they never intended to give up these lands or this
privilege to the white man. McConnell, in his history of
Idaho, advances the interesting theory that this whole
bloody war was precipitated by the ignorance of some
Government clerk who in transcribing the treaty replaced
the unfamiliar name, "Camas Prairie," with "Kansas
Prairie." Although because of this error there was no
mention of the Camas Prairie in the treaty, it was under-
stood that the makers of the treaty intended the Ban-
nacks should be allowed to harvest their annual crop of
camas. That was the Indians' understanding, and it is
little wonder that they were angry when they found the
cattle of the white men uprooting the food which they
prized so highly.
The Bannack chief, Buffalo Horn, was chiefly respon-
HISTORY OF IDAHO INDIANS 49
sible for their going on the warpath. Since he had served
under General Howard in the Nez Perce War and was
familiar with military tactics, he was a dangerous enemy
to the whites. The band first attacked settlers on the
Camas Prairie, and then began a series of murders and
raids on white persons living in southwestern Idaho.
They avoided a general engagement with the troops fol-
lowing them, although they were forced into a few brief
and bloody battles, in one of which their leader, Buffalo
Horn, was killed. The loss of their chief did more than
anything else to break up the war, although some of the
Indians, hoping to make an alliance with powerful Oregon
tribes, refused to surrender even though General Howard
was following them closely. Finally, however, the troops
succeeded in disorganizing them, and, separating into
small bands for protection, the Indians made their way
back to the Fort Hall Reservation.
Some members of this band along with renegades
from the Nez Perce and Shoshoni tribes had found pro-
tection among the Tukuarikas, or Sheepeaters, in the
Salmon River Mountains. This small band of marauding
Indians, outlaws expelled from various tribes, had been a
menace to the whites in that section for some time. They
were wily and treacherous, though cowardly, and lived
by stealing the livestock of the settlers and murdering
and robbing prospectors. Finally, in the summer of 1879,
they became so bold that it was necessary to take steps to
punish them. Troops were sent into the rugged mountain
area to capture them, a difficult task because the Indians
were too cunning to fight an armed force and kept con-
stantly on the move. Despite the fact that the Sheep-
eaters were mountain people and knew the tortuous coun-
try, they finally became discouraged at being unable to
shake off the white soldiers and surrendered on Septem-
ber 1. This game of hide-and-seek was known as the
Sheepeaters' War and put an end to all Indian trouble in
Idaho Territory.
The country was becoming so rapidly settled that the
50 IDAHO
Indians had no place to turn were they to become hostile,
and realizing the futility of continuing this losing fight
against a force too strong for them, they became re-
signed to the inevitable and signed treaties greatly reduc-
ing the size of their reservations. Thus these proud and
independent peoples who had welcomed the first explorers
as friends were reduced to little better than charity wards
of the Government ; and the superficialities of white civi-
lization, for which they had no liking, were forced on
them. The wild, free Idaho Indian was no more, and his
later history must show him as an imperfect replica of
the white man, deteriorating under his imprisonment,
a Reservation Indian.
According to Stephen S. Fenn, delegate from the Idaho
Territory from 1875 to 1879, in a speech before the second
session of the Forty-fifth Congress, a great deal of the
Indian trouble had been caused by the poor choice of
agents for the reservations, because these agents through
greed and corruptness robbed both the Government and
the Indians whom they were selected to protect. The
policy of farming out reservations to different religious
denominations bred dissatisfaction and legitimate anger
because many of these agents designated by the denomi-
nations were hostile to members of other faiths, and,
since they were often placed in regions in which the ma-
jority of the Indians had been Christianized by some
other church, the good work of the missionaries was de-
feated and the Indians made even more hostile. Since
supplies sent by the Government to be issued to the
Indians never reached them and the agents cared little
whether the Indians were fed or clothed, a situation had
arisen which could result in nothing but ill will.
The Lemhi Reservation, set aside for a band of the
Shoshonis, Bannacks, and Tukuarikas in 1875, was more
or less of a cruel jest: the lands designated consisted of
hills and mountains on which it was impossible for the
Indians to make a living. However, the Indians on this
reservation, remnants of other tribes, were always
HISTORY OF IDAHO INDIANS 51
friendly to the white men under the leadership of their
chief, Tendoy. Tendoy was a great statesman and orator
who was respected and beloved by the whites, so much so
that in 1880 he was taken to Washington, D. C, to ar-
range a treaty whereby his band would remove to the
Fort Hall Reservation. He agreed to this arrangement
but asked that the tribe not be forced to go there until
they were willing to do so. Though their reservation was
barren and unfertile and at times they were miserably
poor and destitute, the Lemhis did not wish to give up
their lands and go among the alien tribes of the Fort Hall
Reservation, and it was not until 1905, twenty-five years
later, that they agreed to go in answer to a plea from
Tendoy who was now an old man and in ill-health. The
remaining members of the tribe did go to Fort Hall in
1909, but Chief Tendoy was not among them. He had died
two years before.
With the transfer of the Lemhi Indians to Fort Hall
and the establishment of a small reservation for the
Kutenais in 1894, the entire Idaho Indian population, con-
sisting of what were once great and powerful tribes, was
more or less settled within four reservations, and the
citizens of the State which was now Idaho, having other
things about which to think, proceeded to forget their
existence as much as possible. The Indians were left with
the problem of adjusting themselves to the white man's
civilization and of combating the diseases brought to
them through that civilization.
Today Idaho still has these four reservations : Kutenai
Public Domain, Coeur d'Alene, Lapwai or Nez Perce, and
Fort Hall. A fifth, the Duck Valley or Western Shoshoni
Reservation established in 1877, lies partly in Idaho but
primarily in Nevada, and is classed as a Nevada reserva-
tion. These three northern reservations, being small, are
under the jurisdiction of the Indian agency at Moscow,
Idaho, but the Fort Hall agency is located on the reser-
vation of that name. Indian population for Idaho, taken
from the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior
52 IDAHO
for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1935, was 4,195 persons.
Of these 627 were registered at the Coeur d'Alene Reser-
vation, 120 at the Kutenai, 1,407 at the Nez Perce, and
1,841 at the Fort Hall Reservation.
Such statistics show that the Indians have decreased
rapidly in numbers, but they do not tell the story of each
Indian's disintegration under a policy which robbed him
of incentive ; broke up his institutions, organizations, and
tribal unity; and left him facing greater poverty each
year, dependent on the arbitrary rulings of the Office of
Indian Affairs.
With the passing of the Indian Reorganization Act in
June of 1934, a new period in Indian history has begun,
and the Indian is developing in initiative and resourceful-
ness as he is offered the opportunity to become self-sup-
porting. Reorganization is not complete, but progress
made by the Indians of Fort Hall, Idaho's largest reserva-
tion, is such that one can look on the Indian scene with a
spirit of optimism, and can hope that the Indian will yet
emerge to take his rightful place in the civilization of
today.
m
ANTHROPOLOGY OF IDAHO
INDIANS
Ill
ANTHROPOLOGY OF IDAHO
INDIANS
THE EARLIEST Indians of Idaho have left so few
records of their inhabitance that it is difficult to
determine just what type of culture was theirs before
the coming of the contemporary Indian. Archaeologists
have discovered a number of prehistoric inscriptions on
rocks and two or three interesting caves containing relics,
but their findings have been meager in comparison with
those of other regions. Until more undisturbed material
has been found, how far back the history of man actually
extends in Idaho is only conjecture.
The first important discovery of prehistoric Indians in
the State was that of a cave near Marsing, on the south
side of the Snake River below Nampa, in which were
relics indicating that man lived in caves in southwestern
Idaho some four thousand years ago. This date was set
because the types of weaving found in the cave made it
seem probable that its inhabitants were connected with
early Pueblo culture, which archaeologists have placed
at approximately that antiquity. An ingenious fishhook
leads to the belief that they were fishermen, and the
finding of a fishing cache points to the theory that al-
though the cave was not a permanent residence they
expected to return but for some unknown reason did not.
Another interesting cave, also believed to have been
inhabited three or four thousand years ago, was dis-
covered near the mouth of the Salmon River in 1933.
Many relics were found in an excellent state of preserva-
56 IDAHO
tion under about four feet of dry earth, and from all indi-
cations the owners were of a race different from those
living here when the whites first came to the Northwest.
Much importance has been attached to a brush made of
butts of coarse, fibrous grass containing a tangled mass of
red hair, of which some strands were eighteen or twenty
inches long. Mats or long braids possibly used for floor
coverings or bedding were artistically woven from a
coarse grass which is unknown in the region today. Other
articles found were a two-strand rope, three moccasins
made of elkhide with the hair on the outside, two elkhorn
wedges, a half-dozen well-formed arrowheads, a large
food pestle with either writing or ornament on the handle,
a bow and arrow, a well-polished wooden needle, and
twenty-five forked sticks, apparently used for cooking,
which were made of hard wood not found in the region.
The walls of the cave are covered with picture writing
which appears to be of an earlier period than that found
elsewhere in Idaho and which does not seem to connect
in any way with present-day Indians living in the North-
west.
The State Historical Society of Idaho lists sixty-nine
locations of rock writings in Idaho, about twenty of which
are found along the Snake River. In most cases they are
found at the sites of Indian camps along trails, and vary
in quantity, some being only a few characters on single
rocks while others contain many writings on numbers of
rocks. Pictographs, or painted inscriptions, and petro-
glyphs, or inscriptions carved with a sharp instrument,
are both found in the State, although neither has been
"read" satisfactorily and as proof of the general system
of Indian tribal life are of little importance. Their signifi-
cance seems to be mostly local, and attempts at interpre-
tation show them as being records of visits of individuals,
battles, hunting expeditions, game areas, religion, cere-
monies, dreams, warnings, and information concerning
water or trails. Although most of them are very crude,
ANTHROPOLOGY OF IDAHO INDIANS 57
they show varying artistic ability and seem to be the
records of ancient, probably not primitive, man.
The pictographs are most often found on walls under
rock shelters or in caves, and some of them have lines so
neatly executed that it is thought the painting had been
sketched beforehand. In design the pictographs feature
curvilinear and geometric elements with numerous dots
and some triangles being used. The circular figure occurs
in many combinations with connected, concentric, and
plain circles as well as some used in series and chains.
Other representative characters are wavy lines, rakes,
stars, rain symbols, ladders, deer, mountain sheep, birds,
lizards, bear tracks and paws, sheep horns, hands, men on
horses, and the sun. The paints, made by dissolving
mineral material with gum or resin from pine and fir
trees, have glazed and become bright in color, mostly red,
retaining that brightness many years. Most important of
the pictographs are found in the Salmon River region.
On cliffs in Birch Creek are scenes of a fight which took
place between the Lemhi and Bannack Indians, painted
with red pigment prepared from colored earth which has
so penetrated the rocks that it can only be removed by
chipping. The unpublished manuscript of John Rees in
the files of the Idaho Historical Society states that the
scenes were near the old Indian Trail and were intended to
warn passing Indians that the game lands were claimed by
the Shoshonis. In a cave in Indian Head Gulch, south of
Nicholia, are drawings representing the "hoop and pole
game," which was probably a championship game between
the Shoshoni and Arapahoe tribes.
Petroglyphs, made by abrasion, were usually placed
on the southern exposure of the rocks because the other
sides were more or less prone to be covered with lichen.
The stones used to "peck" were of a very hard nature,
often of quartz, and the depth of the incising varies
probably one sixteenth of an inch. Some marks are barely
visible, although others are as fresh as though they were
of recent date. In some instances writings of a later
58 IDAHO
period are superimposed upon the first writing, and even
a third series of marking over has been reported. Most
important of the petroglyphs occur in southern Idaho.
Interesting petroglyphs can be seen at Indian Point, near
Danskin Ranger Station on the South Fork of the Boise
River, and in Lemhi County, where one announces a hunt-
ing and fishing party to be held in the Snake River Basin
and a council to settle disputes on territorial hunting and
fishing rights. Near Givens Warm Springs is a typical
example of Shoshonean petroglyphs, locally termed "map
rock." This primitive topographical map, drawn by the
Indians without compass, rule, or any kind of guide, is a
remarkably accurate map of the territory of the Snake
River and its tributaries showing faunal features of the
Shoshonean region. It is on a large lava rock weighing
several tons and resting at the bottom of a talus slope
with a natural travel route between it and the river.
Placed correctly on the rock, the direction of all the fea-
tures, including the various tributaries adjacent to lakes
and mountains, is accurate.
These few records and later legends, most of which
are mythological, are all that exist of Indian history before
the coming of the explorers to the Northwest in 1805.
When Lewis and Clark made their way westward they
found living in what is now northern Idaho the Nez Perces,
Coeur d'Alenes, Pend d'Oreilles, and Kutenais ; and in the
southern part of the State the Shoshonis proper or
"Snakes," the Bannacks, and later the Sheepeaters and the
Lemhis.
The Nez Perces, purest and strongest of the Shahap-
tian family, lived chiefly along the valleys of the Clear-
water River and its tributaries and in the lower Salmon
River country. They were named Nez Perces or "pierced
noses" by the French, although as far as is known they
were never given to the practice of piercing their noses.
They were closely related to the treacherous and warlike
Cayuses by intermarriage and by the absence of difficult
natural barriers between them, but the Nez Perce tribe
ANTHROPOLOGY OF IDAHO INDIANS 59
was in most cases friendly to the whites. War and hunt-
ing were their chief occupations, and salmon their most
important food in earlier times although they frequently
resorted to camas roots, berries, and mosses for prov-
ender. Lewis and Clark narratives tell us that the Nez
Perce population was about six thousand people living in
bands or villages named according to the place of their
permanent winter camp, and that their houses, made of
straw and mats, were closed at the ends and had doors.
Each tribe had several chiefs with one considered the
leader, but there were no signs of a clan system in their
social organization. The introduction of horses had fa-
cilitated hunting expeditions to the neighboring moun-
tains, and the Nez Perces became skillful horsemen with
more and better stock than any of the nations. Certain
ceremonial rites formed an important part of their lives,
and a large dancing house was built at each permanent
camp. It was the custom of early Nez Perce Indians to
overcome the spirit of fatigue by a ceremony, supposed
to confer great endurance, which lasted from three to
seven days and was repeated yearly from the ages of
eighteen to forty. Medicine men were supposed to acquire
wonderful powers and become invulnerable by retiring to
the mountains to confer with the medicine wolf. Their
religion consisted of a belief in any number of spirits,
and steam baths and sweat houses were used for the pur-
pose of purification in their religious rites.
The Kutenais (Kootenae, Kootenai), originally living
in the northern portions of what are now Idaho and Mon-
tana and in British Columbia, were a relatively small and
unimportant tribe, although they formed one of the fifty-
nine distinct linguistic famihes in the United States.
They were the most northern tribe accustomed to the
horse, supposedly introduced by the Shoshonis, and lived
chiefly by hunting, fishing, and root gathering. As they
were few in numbers and unusually well behaved, history
records little of their doings.
The Pend d'Oreilles or "Earbobs," first called Kully-
60 IDAHO
spell, inhabited the region around the lake of that name
and along the river now called Clark Fork. They were
never an important or numerous tribe and lived chiefly
on roots and venison, accompanying the Flatheads on
their annual buffalo hunt. The men were of good phy-
sique, skilled warriors, hunters, and fishermen, but the
women, according to De Smet, were "untidy even for
savages." Their religion was characteristic of other tribes
of this region although they had a peculiar custom of
sending the young Fend d'Oreille, as he approached his
majority, to a high mountain where he remained until
he dreamed of some animal, bird, or fish which was there-
after to be his medicine. A claw, tooth, or feather from
the object of his dream was worn as his perpetual charm
to protect him through his lifetime from all evil. Another
custom which seems to apply to this tribe of Indians when
reduced to severe straits was that of burying alive the
very old and very young.
The Coeur d'Alenes were members of the Salishan
family who lived in the region around Lake Coeur
d'Alene. The Bureau of Ethnology gives the Indian name
of this tribe as the Skitswish, frequently written "Ski-
zoo-mish," and Lewis and Clark called them the "Skeet-so-
mish." They were never very warlike or unfriendly to the
whites and were quickly subdued after a mild uprising
in 1858. They have been termed "industrious, self-re-
specting, and docile," although early French voyageurs
named them Coeur d'Alene or "Heart of an Awl" and de-
scribed them as being people "having spirits that were
small and hard and being particularly shrewd in trade."
Various tribes of the Shoshonean family, third largest
of the linguistic stocks of the United States in extent of
territory occupied, were found in the upper Snake River
Valley and the major part of what is now southern Idaho.
Principal members of the Shoshonean family living in
Idaho were the Shoshonis proper and the Bannacks, al-
though the cognate Paiutes, Sheepeaters, and Lemhis
figured in Idaho history.
ANTHROPOLOGY OF IDAHO INDIANS 61
The Shoshoni or Snake Indians, supposedly of Cali-
fornia origin, were marked by more pretentiousness in
dress and ornamentation than were the tribes farther
south, and their dwellings were superior to those of the
Utahs. They showed some facility in the manufacturing
of cruder forms of pottery and were also grass weavers.
It is thought that they were named Snakes because they
replied to early traders' requests for their name by making
peculiar snakelike motions with the index finger to reveal
the art of weaving. Their apparent timidity and grave
and reserved habits gave the white settlers the erroneous
idea that they were rather stupid, but closer observance
showed them to be intelligent and lively. They were es-
sentially buffalo hunters, and the unfruitful nature of
much of their country compelled them to lead a wander-
ing life. In common with other tribes, they believed in
spirits and laid any ills that befell them to such evil
forces.
The culturally low "Digger branch of the family,"
called Paiutes, lived in sagebrush huts on the desert or
in the mountains, and by the barrenness of the country
they occupied had been led into humble methods of sub-
sistence on small game, fish, roots, and seeds. These In-
dians owned no horses and although they manufactured
pottery to a limited extent, practiced a rude agriculture
in certain districts, and lived under a somewhat complex
social system, they were considered the most degraded of
the race in the United States and were scorned by the
Bannacks and Shoshonis.
More belligerent, sly, cunning, and restless than the
Shoshonis were the Bannacks, a brave and warlike race,
probably the most warlike of the Shoshonean family.
Their name, Bannack, refers to the manner in which
members of the tribe wore a tuft of hair thrown backward
from the forehead, and should not have been corrupted
into the Scotch word Bannock. They were tall, straight,
athletically built, and were always willing to engage in
open combat with the whites, by whom they were termed
62 IDAHO
traitorous and hostile. As their territory lay across the
Oregon and California trails and the route that connected
Salt Lake City with the Salmon River mines, they in-
fested the highways and committed robberies and mur-
ders of passing emigrants. They roamed through this
country at will and even after being officially placed on
the Fort Hall Reservation refused to give up their migra-
tory habits until after their defeat in the Bannack War.
The Sheepeaters or Tukuarikas were formed from
outlaws of the Shoshoni and Bannack tribes who lived in
the mountainous Salmon River country. Because of the
barren hilly nature of this region, they were not as well
off as other tribes and lived by stealing the livestock of
the settlers as well as by murdering and robbing lone
prospectors. These cunning and treacherous renegades
caused serious trouble until they were finally defeated
by the whites.
Certain scattered members of the Shoshoni, Bannack,
and Sheepeater tribes placed themselves under the pro-
tection of Chief Tendoy, a Shoshoni Indian, intermarried,
and formed mixed stock later known as the Lemhis. The
name Lemhi, not an Indian word, was applied to them
because they lived in the vicinity of the fort of that name,
and they were often called simply "Tendoy's Band." Their
land was unusually unproductive, but although they were
probably the most poverty-stricken of all the Indians of
Idaho, they were well behaved and under the leadership
of Tendoy were always friendly to the white men.
Most of these tribes other than the Nez Perces and
Shoshonis were relatively unimportant and their culture
similar to the two more important groups. For this
reason, discussion of the customs, legends, clothing, and
handicraft of Idaho Indians will be limited to the Nez
Perce and Shoshoni tribes.
When the first traders came to Idaho the dress of the
Indians was somewhat varied. Nez Perce men dressed as
nearly as they could like white men, wore their hair short,
and looked like Spanish-speaking inhabitants of Arizona.
ANTHROPOLOGY OF IDAHO INDIANS 63
The women had long hair, sometimes banged in front
and sometimes tied at the back with bits of ribbon. Their
skirts were never short, and they liked bright shawls,
wearing them pulled over their heads so their faces were
half hidden. The Shoshonis were rather well dressed in
typical plains fashion. Their blankets, made of buffalo,
antelope, or deerskin dressed with the hair, were the same
for both sexes, except that the women's were smaller. In
summer they used elkskins without hair. The blanket
was thrown loosely over the shoulders and drawn to-
gether by the hands or held by a girdle. Moccasins, made
of one piece, were of deer, elk, or buffalo skin dressed
with hair ; in winter moccasins the buffalo skin was fixed
with the hair inside. The Shoshoni tippet is described by
Lewis as the most elegant Indian garment he saw, its
collar being a strip of otter skin with the head, tail, and
from one hundred to two hundred and fifty small rolls of
ermine skin attached. At that time only children wore
beads, but today necklaces are very popular among the
men and women. Working clothes of the Indians today
are much the same as those of the white men, although
they still make some clothing of buckskin and have tra-
ditional costumes for ceremonies.
At Fort Hall bead weaving of belts, armlets, hat
bands, purses, bags, and numerous other articles is done
on a crude bow or loom made of native timber with strong
cotton threads for the warp.^ The older Indians, espe-
cially the Bannacks and some Shoshonis, use seed beads
and geometric designs while the Bannack Creek Indians
and those living along the Portneuf River use more floral
designs and brighter colors of glass beads. The Washakie
or Portage Shoshonis make the floral designs with one
beadwork like the outline stitch and do beautiful work in
embroidery and other sewing. The men on the reserva-
tion make hackamores, bridles, reins, and the like of
1 For much of the following information credit is due Mrs. Min-
nie Y. LeSieur, a part-Indian woman of the Fort Hall Reservation.
64 IDAHO
rawhide; twist hair lines or ropes; and make bows and
arrows. They use Indian hemp to make fish nets and to
wrap and fasten the hooks of the fishing spears.
The principal material for useful and ornamental
work is buckskin, which is tanned by the Fort Hall In-
dians in the old way. The tedious process includes the
soaking, scraping, and fleshing of the hide; the applica-
tion of the tanning preparation of brains and liver boiled
and mashed into a soft mixture ; and the continued soak-
ing, pulling, rubbing, and stretching of the raw stuff until
it is soft and pliable. When it is finished it is snow white
and can be used in that natural color for dresses, vests,
gloves, or purses. If a shade of yellow, orange, or darker
yellow is desired, a white tanned hide is made airtight and
strung over a shallow hole in which a fire has been made
of white pine or some other kind of wood which gives a
yellow color. The right side being next to the smoke, any
shade can be obtained by a briefer or longer time over the
smothered smoke, and the process is doubly valuable since
it prevents buckskin from hardening as it would do if wet
in the raw state.
Baskets, which are still used by the older Indians for
various purposes, are made from twigs or slender sprouts
of certain willows. Favorite material is taken from a
squat variety of willow called the "frog willow" ("Yah-
gwa-tsa-seeve"), although the "Coo-sie-seeve" and pussy
willow are used at certain times. In making the baskets
the sap wood is separated from the heart by splitting the
willow into three parts and trimming to the desired size.
The older women are more skilled and artistic in making
the design work, which is often bicolored, the colors be-
ing obtained by dye from roots, bark, or berries or by
using wilted and discolored willows for brown and tan
shades of geometric designs. They make long baskets
with wide tops for berry picking, carrying baskets, or
receptacles for food, shovel-shaped fans to clean seeds
and grains, and closely coiled water-jar baskets coated
inside with pitch from the pine or piiion pine.
Jim Marshall of Fort Hall
^^^ ^K
Fort Hall Indian
ANTHROPOLOGY OF IDAHO INDIANS 65
The Indians of Fort Hall make a little money by selling
these articles of handicraft from booths during county
fairs and through stores the year around. All of the
stores at Fort Hall sell Indian goods, as well as several in
Pocatello. The northern tribes have almost no income from
this source. They make a few articles such as moccasins,
gloves, cornhusk bags, and beaded purses, but sales are
mostly individual and articles are found only in small
quantities in the towns on and adjacent to the reserva-
tions. The primary source of income and the chief occu-
pation of all Indians in Idaho is agriculture, and persons
interested in the Indian today feel that his salvation lies
in persuading him to cultivate his lands instead of leasing
them. The Indians of Fort Hall use and rent their lands,
own stock ranches, and have co-operative cattle associa-
tions. Potatoes have been supplied to various nonreserva-
tion schools such as the Haskell Institute in Kansas and
the Sherman Institute in California, and various agricul-
tural products have been marketed within the State, al-
though crops are not abundant because the climate and
fertility of the valley are spoiled by the scarcity of water.
Since food is never plentiful because of this shortage
of water, the Indians residing on the Fort Hall Reserva-
tion feel the need of utilizing every available food supply.
Wild berries such as chokecherries, serviceberries, goose-
berries, and currants, some years abundant, are dried by
the older Indians and canned by the younger educated
women. The old people dry the ground roots they get
from Camas Prairie and gather sunflower seeds or grains
to be made into sunflower porridge by the old methods.
Chokecherries are still crushed or ground with seed
grinders of stone by the older Indians who scorn modern
methods, preferring to boil or roast their meats over a
campfire and bake their unleavened bread in a bed of hot
ashes or a Dutch oven. Occasionally an Indian gets a
deer in this limited area, spears or catches a fish, or
joins in a rabbit drive, the obtaining of meat being so
66 IDAHO
important that any surplus is dried and made into pem-
mican as was the custom long ago.
Most of the old Indians cling to tribal traditions and
practices, and the clan has survived as it always was. The
office of chief continues to be hereditary or elective ac-
cording to the members of a tribe, the present hereditary
chief being assisted by a tribal business council and an
advisory council set up by the Indian Reorganization Act.
There is still functional ownership of tepee or other
articles by the woman who made them, and an ownership
of rituals and songs. The older Indians are true to their
primitive religion, have medicine men and women, and
continue to use the sweat house, their religious cere-
monies being accompanied by traditional music which is
kept secret from the white man. Marriage is allowed be-
tween opposite clans of the Shoshoni or between Ban-
nacks and Shoshonis, but there is a strict rule against
intermarriage within a clan even though the tribal mar-
riage ceremony is disappearing. At a funeral it is the
custom to give such articles as clothing, blankets, buck-
skin, and money to those who have recently buried some
one ; but as the old Indians die, many of these ancient and
interesting customs are changing.
Indian music is, as it was in the past, significantly
linked with Indian life. Every public ceremony and every
important act in the career of an individual has its ac-
companiment of song with a rhythm always peculiar to
the occasion. Some songs have no words, but their ab-
sence does not impair the definite meaning, since vocables
are used which once set to melody are never changed.
Each ceremonial dance has its own songs and drumbeats,
with rhythm even in the throb of the drum, although it
is erroneously thought that these dances are accompanied
only by vocal "ki-yis." Most important of the Shoshoni
ceremonials is the Fort Hall Sun Dance, which is held
about the twenty-fourth of July each year in an enclosure
usually built of willows three or four miles west of the
ANTHROPOLOGY OF IDAHO INDIANS 67
agency. Not far from American Falls is a worn circle
which marks the spot of the rites which were held there
until 1917. The Sun Dance, a supplication to the Great
Spirit for health and strength, lasts two days and three
nights, followed by pleasure dances called variously the
War, Owl, Rabbit, and Grass Dances. The latter part of
January or the first part of February a rehgious recrea-
tional dance known as the Warm Dance is held to hasten
a thaw or "breaking up of winter," and later there is an
Easter Dance and egg feast.
Most important of the Nez Perce celebrations is the
Ka-oo-yit, a formal feast held annually in Lewiston at the
time of the white townspeople's Cherry Blossom Festival
in May. The name signifies "eaten for the first time," in
reference to the first food supply of the year, and its pur-
pose is thanksgiving to the Great Spirit as the source of
the power that produces food supplies. The older Nez
Perces say that it was an ancient custom originally cele-
brated in a simple and quiet manner within a family circle
or small group family, but as time passed it became a
feast ritual in which all members of the tribe joined.
James Mallikan, Nez Perce Indian living near Kamiah,
says of the Ka-oo-yit: "In recent periods, intertribal
celebrations have been inaugurated and the ceremonies
have been highly festive and picturesque, carried out with
pomp, featured with a magnificent display of regalia and
dresses worn by the participants. Today it is a large day
on the calendar of the Indians of the Northwest."
Of the more private religious ceremonies kept sacred
to the Indian, of many of his folkways, and of the ma-
jority of his legends, white persons have learned little.
Shoshoni mythology as a whole seems to lack a system-
atic cosmogony and a migration legend, and is coarser,
more primitive, and more humorous than the Nez Perce
collection. The role of the creator is sometimes assigned
to A'po, the Father, or No' mono A'po, the Indians' Fath-
er, a deity that some informants identify with either
68 IDAHO
Coyote or Wolf, chief figures in Shoshoni mythology. Ac-
cording to Clark, the Bannacks considered Gray Wolf
their creator, and the Shoshonis Coyote as theirs. In ad-
dition to the Coyote cycle, there seems to be a group of
native stories which deal with the Dzo' avits, a race of
gigantic ogres dwelling in stone houses, as well as others
telling of apparently anthropomorphic cannibals.
The Shoshonis at Fort Hall tell of their belief in Nin-
num-bees or "Small People," some asserting that they are
spirits of departed warriors since they have an arrow-
case slung on their backs and carry a bow. According
to legend they are seen or heard only late in the evenings
or very early in the mornings, singing, and fortunate is
the patiently waiting warrior who sees them and learns
the Nin-num-bees' song. He will then be victorious in
battle, but if he tells of this vision it will never be re-
peated, and he will lose the power imparted. The chil-
dren's story is a little different. "Hush," the mother
tells her children when encamped in this vicinity, "this
is where the Nin-num-bees live. Do not play near the
large rocks or caves ; the small people will take you away.
Once a young girl while picking berries fell in love with
one and followed him away and was never seen again."
Many legends were told to explain habits and char-
acteristics of animals or birds, such as this one which
tells why turtle doves mourn. "Long ago they were
called Co-ah-wee-haw, derived from the cry of the bird
which is similar in sound. They were also called 'rattle-
snake's brother-in-law' (Toag'-go-in-dayts) because of a
strange belief that whenever an Indian mocks one of
these birds or kills its mate it tells a rattlesnake which
way he is going and asks the snake to place himself by
the Indian's path to bite him as he passes by. In this
way the wrong is avenged. If an Indian kills one of these
reptiles, the doves sit on a tree and weep, lamenting over
the departed snake by reiterating their mournful cry.
Because of these things, the Indians have a strange
superstition against mocking or killing this bird."
ANTHROPOLOGY OF IDAHO INDIANS 69
The Nez Perces in legend explain why coyotes howl
at the stars. "Coyote had become great. He had done
many wonderful things such as stealing fire for men and
giving fish to the Indians, so he came to think great of
his powers and lived apart on a high mountain top. He
wished to travel in the sky-world with the star which
every night came close to his mountain top. Every night
he begged star to take him on a journey, but star
would only laugh at him. Then Coyote would shake with
anger. At last star grew tired of Coyote's pleadings and
said, 'Come to me tomorrow night and I will take you to
the star sky.' The next night star came very near to
Coyote and he sprang far up into the air to catch hold
of star. Star turned and they climbed high into the sky.
Beside them shone the moon. Below them the tallest
pines looked like tiny spears of grass. The frost spirits
lived in the sky and Coyote grew very cold as he traveled
upward. Star too was cold, and moon. Coyote became
colder and colder until his paws were stiff and he could
not hold on. He slipped and fell. When he struck the
earth he was crushed flat. He lay very still as his broth-
ers crowded around him and howled in anger at the
treacherous star. In this way great Coyote was killed,
and that is why each night other coyotes point their
noses toward the sky and howl in sorrow for his death."
The Shoshoni Indians have a charming legend telling
the story of the Indian Spirit at Mesa Falls. "Many
moons ago when the members of the tribe came to these
falls to fish, a lovely maiden was helping her lover. He
gracefully threw his spear ; she quietly gathered the fish
as he caught them and threw them on the bank. Be-
coming bold, he waded into the deeper water, but he lost
his footing and the swift stream swept him down. She
followed him; the boiling waters caught her, and she
lost her life. Her lover swam out and was filled with
sorrow at learning his sweetheart had drowned. Each
year since then the Indians have watched in the falls for
the mist-look of the maiden. At times she appears to
70 IDAHO
them clad in white, smiling, with her long hair floating
gently in the wind and spray. Sometimes when the wind
is blowing softly her voice can be heard calling, 'Do not
long for me, for I am happy here guarding these falls
and watching over you.* "
IV
IDAHO FROM THE AIR
See5ig5»-3pg2S3°-E=:°-»sSi;"3 I ^"Jir
a,Q.a« E g ;-J J iS z en 61. o, ..< U] X ■< :3 O < ^ ^r^'SS'S!*
IV
IDAHO FROM THE AIR
TOPOGRAPHICALLY, Idaho is one of the strangest
States in the Union. At the beginning of the last
century it was part of that indefinite geographic area
known as the Columbia River country. After 1820 it be-
longed to the Oregon country, which roughly included the
present States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, as well
as what is now western Montana and western Wyoming
and a large part of the present British Columbia. In
1846 the British Columbia area was withdrawn by treaty
with England, and in 1848 the Oregon Territory was es-
tablished. In the next two decades, Idaho's territorial
boundaries were changed five times. In 1853 the region
was divided, and the northern half was called Washing-
ton Territory; and when, in 1859, Oregon was admitted
to the Union, Idaho became a part of the Washington area
with its eastern boundary lying upon what were to be-
come Montana and Wyoming. In March of 1863 Idaho
was declared a Territory, and then included a large sec-
tion of country lying east of the Bitterroot and Rocky
Mountains. In 1864 a portion of it was withdrawn to
Montana ; in 1868 the remaining area east of the moun-
tains was given to Wyoming. Idaho, in consequence, was
reduced to its present strange shape, and all attempts to
alter its boundaries since that time have failed. In con-
sequence, too, it has no logic in its present boundaries
except the Bitterroot Mountains and the Continental Di-
vide between it and Montana, and the Snake River be-
tween a part of it and Oregon.
"ii
^/
I
IV
IDAHO FROM THE AIR
TOPOGRAPHICALLY, Idaho is one of the strangest
States in the Union. At the beginning of the last
century it was part of that indefinite geographic area
known as the Columbia River country. After 1820 it be-
longed to the Oregon country, which roughly included the
present States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, as well
as what is now western Montana and western Wyoming
and a large part of the present British Columbia. In
1846 the British Columbia area was withdrawn by treaty
with England, and in 1848 the Oregon Territory was es-
tablished. In the next two decades, Idaho's territorial
boundaries were changed five times. In 1853 the region
was divided, and the northern half was called Washing-
ton Territory; and when, in 1859, Oregon was admitted
to the Union, Idaho became a part of the Washington area
with its eastern boundary lying upon what were to be-
come Montana and Wyoming. In March of 1863 Idaho
was declared a Territory, and then included a large sec-
tion of country lying east of the Bitterroot and Rocky
Mountains. In 1864 a portion of it was withdrawn to
Montana ; in 1868 the remaining area east of the moun-
tains was given to Wyoming. Idaho, in consequence, was
reduced to its present strange shape, and all attempts to
alter its boundaries since that time have failed. In con-
sequence, too, it has no logic in its present boundaries
except the Bitterroot Mountains and the Continental Di-
vide between it and Montana, and the Snake River be-
tween a part of it and Oregon.
74 IDAHO
It is little wonder then that no other State in the Union
has a topographical structure so varied and sometimes so
appalling. Idaho lies among a group of States each of
which has a more definite geological integrity and a more
connatural face, mountainous though they may be ; and is
homologous in the north with Washington or western
Montana, in the far south with Nevada, in the southeast
with Utah, and upon its eastern boundary with Wyoming.
It is, in consequence, a State that seems to have been
parceled from many, and offers not only unusual and dra-
matic changes in scenery but also remarkable shifts in
altitude. From the east, down through the great Snake
River Valley, it drops in a long broad incline from almost
six thousand feet to a little more than two thousand;
and from here, in the western part, it lifts over mountain
ranges and drops two thousand feet into Lewiston, the
lowest point in the State. And lying, as Idaho does, from
Canada to the temperate Cache Valley in Utah, and from
the frozen Teton Peaks to warm Pacific winds, it perhaps
offers, too, more extremes in temperature and weather,
ranging from freezing altitudes to the mild climate of
its southwestern valleys. Upon parts of Idaho very Httle
snow falls and the little that falls rarely remains long;
and upon other parts, even along rivers where farms are
many, the snow in February may lie eight feet deep. The
streets of Boise may lie bare when thirty miles north-
ward a town is buried to its gables. Parts of the State
harvest full crops under rainfall and with no irrigation;
and other parts, with little rain and no irrigation, lie
brown and barren through the summer months. In parts
of Idaho even deer, exhausted by want of forage, may
freeze to death; in another part, at the same time, the
largest privately owned orchard in the world may be get-
ting ready to blossom. Within southern caves in January
wild animals may lie indolently fat in warm chambers;
and in the same hour mountain goats, standing upon the
great watersheds, look across deserts of snow that have
completely buried evergreens thirty feet in height.
I
IDAHO FROM THE AIR 75
Idaho has huge semiarid reaches, but it also probably
has more running water than any other State. It has flat
formidable tablelands that defeat everything but sage-
brush and coyote, but it also has more lakes than have
ever been counted and nobody quite knows how many
remain undiscovered and unexplored. It has broad benches
slabbed out of basalt that reach like vast gray pavement
from county to county ; but it also has, one upon its bor-
der and two within it, the deepest canyons in the United
States. It has alpine pinnacles where the ice never melts,
but it also has so many hot springs that som^e cities pipe
the water into their homes for heat. It has two of the
largest remaining herds of antelope, one of which forages
upon a mighty landscape that rolls away into the desolate
reaches of northern Nevada, the other of which grazes in
pocketed mountain valleys high against the timber line.
Upon one part trees may be drenched with blossom while
less than a hundred miles away the boughs of the alpine
larch are breaking under their burden of snow. So diver-
sified, indeed, is the State in its physical aspects that no
one has ever tried to summarize it in one comprehensive
formula.
Almost from boundary to boundary across southern
Idaho falls the broad sweep of the Snake River Valley. It
has a rolling and often impassably rugged floor of lava
bed laid upon Tertiary sediments hundreds of feet deep.
Southward are, from east to west, the Caribou, Bear
River, Portneuf, Bannock, Sublette, Albion, and Owyhee
Ranges, with the vast Bruneau Plateau lying between the
last two. Northward are the Lemhi, Sawtooth, Boise, and
Seven Devils Ranges, with the deepest gorge on the North
American Continent dropping almost eight thousand feet
in the latter. In the center of the State, north of Snake
River and running from Wood River northeast past the
porous volcanic terrain where two rivers vanish, is a mag-
nificently desolate steppe of thirty-four hundred square
miles. From its northern edge, two rivers and several
creeks enter this area and lose themselves in the holes and
76 IDAHO
fissures and all but vanish from sight; and lakes form
here in the spring and disappear in the fall. Lying under
this steppe is nobody knows what; but far underground
the rivers must take their journey along subterranean
beds to burst forth at last upon the wall of the Snake
River Gorge. Upon these solidified sheets, interbedded
with the sediment of what was once a great lake, are
countless vents and cones, recently extinct craters, caves
filled with ice, and superchilled springs. The dominant
rock structure here is the Idaho batholith, a great dome
with a north-south axis two hundred and fifty miles long
and an extreme width of a hundred miles. In late Jurassic
time occurred this uplift beneath sedimentary beds of
limestones, sandstones, and shales ; and some of the beds,
folded down and protected from erosion, now appear as
schists and ridges and dikes; but elsewhere streams and
glaciers have cut intricate weird patterns on the batho-
lith top.
These corrugated lava flows of a former time have left
phenomena called sinks, and it is into these that rivers
disappear to emerge at last far away into hundreds of
thousands of springs with innumerable ones gushing from
walls of stone and with others to rise high to tumble in
waterfalls. Snake River (Mad River the French Cana-
dians called it) has cut a gorge across most of the State,
and across the southern flank of this lava steppe it has
eroded a stupendous path. Sometimes it lies hundreds of
feet under its walls of stone and pours over cascades or
flows through shadow under the outpouring of buried
rivers ; and farther in its journey, upon the Oregon-Idaho
line, it has cut through lava and flows upon a bed of
granite seventy-nine hundred feet below He Devil Peak.
The reaches of rock in this part of the State include
granite and syenites and schists, quartzites and lime-
stones, and calcareous and noncalcareous shales. The
granite farther north, once thought to be of Archean Age
but now regarded as younger, is a coarse texture of feld-
spar and mica and quartz. This enormous rugged pave-
IDAHO FROM THE AIR 77
ment of stone is a geologic continuity that has intruded in
innumerable places, and unfolds, in consequence, into a
panorama of faults and gorges, corrugated ridges and
black caverns and basaltic buttes. There are huge bodies
of pink and white quartzites, deep-bedded, hard, and uni-
form; there is pink quartzite resting upon granite and
overlaid by dark blue and black calcareous slates ; and on
the northern border, next to the watersheds of the Wood
and Salmon and Lost Rivers, slates and shales and lime-
stones rest upon granite to a depth of thousands of feet.
Mount Borah, highest point in the State, carries coral
limestone on its very crest, lifted from the sea bottom
that was once three miles below. Southward the eruptive
volcanic rocks lie in superimposed flows, including the
basaltic sculpturings in the Craters of the Moon. Big
Butte and East Butte are extinct volcanoes that antedate
the Snake River basalts, and stood Hke islands long ago
amid the encroaching boiling floods of stone.
Such briefly is one part of Idaho as geologists see it.
From automobile or train window it is a rolling mass of
loneliness and waste, with the integrity of granite and the
changelessness of time. From the air it is much the same,
with its hard and formidable surface lying endlessly upon
the miles. A more impervious area it would be diiflcult to
find, or one more inviolable within its empire of aridity
and stone. Most of it can never be used, save for grazing,
and must lie here forever as it is now under the journey
of trains and the desolation of its sky. But for those who
know it and have stood within its strength, it is a splendid
and timeless area upon which a thousand centuries will
leave almost no mark of change ; and they love its caves
and craters and the weird terracing of its scene. This part
of Idaho, looking as if the sky had poured boulders upon
it, or looking as if it harbored a vegetation of rock ; this
toothed steppe, furrowed and gouged and spilled in pyra-
mids, is not for persons whose homes are in tropical
growth under cloudy skies. This is the last frontier, de-
78 IDAHO
livered to rock and desolation and set apart as a monu-
ment of its own.
But it is chiefly this part of Idaho which persons see
who travel across the State to the Pacific Northwest.
They come in from the humid Middle West or the indus-
trial East, where landscape seldom breaks into rugged
and terrifying extremes ; and they find this region awful
in its aloofness and inexplicable in its calm. There is no
shadow in its bald glare and no witchery in its horizons :
it is candid in sunlight and alien and ageless in its mood.
Persons entering the State by a valley in the southeast,
and then reaching and gazing upon this rocky subterrane
north and south, and then coming to and soon passing
beyond the Boise Valley, doubtless think of Idaho as an
appalling desert with an oasis at either end. But this
region is only a very minor part of the State.
Eastward from it lie the upper reaches of the Snake
River Valley, famous for its potatoes; and here, under
irrigation, what was once loosely called a desert of sage-
brush without exposed rock is now one of the most fer-
tile and productive areas in the West. It runs from the
western entrance of Yellowstone to the city of Pocatello ;
and from the sky it is discovered to be a network of canals
upon the river's lower drainage basin, with farms cover-
ing it in June like a great green blanket. In October it is
landscaped in hundreds of thousands of bags of potatoes
standing in endless rows ; in trainloads of sugar beets that
almost reach across the cities; and in stacks of alfalfa
hay. A desert here has been reclaimed. For half a cen-
tury the earth has been excavated in hundreds of canals
and ditches ; and the waters of the Snake, pouring down
from the mountains standing against Wyoming, have
been diverted to these canals. Much of this land, once
regarded as worthless for all but grazing, has changed
hands at $300 an acre. Besides potatoes and beets and
hay, orchards are here, too, and fields of peas ; and herds
of cattle and sheep. Upon the foothills flanking the moun-
tains in the east and reaching down into the valley in long
IDAHO FROM THE AIR 79
rolling prairies are the unirrigated wheatlands. These
areas, also, once bedded with sagebrush and greasewood,
wild grasses, and wild flowers, were regarded as worth-
less; and less than twenty-five years ago a man was
thought to be out of his wits when he went experimentally
to one of these arid hills to plant wheat and learn if it
would grow. Now nearly every available acre has been
plowed; and farms here, as in eastern Oregon and else-
where, literally hang from mountainsides like pictures,
green in June and golden in August. Seen from above,
these rolling hills and these less precipitous mountain
backbones are alive with tractors that look like huge in-
sects turning the furrows or dragging the harvesters;
and in August and September the highways show cara-
vans of trucks hauling the grain. The two forks of Snake
River come down out of subalpine valleys and pour their
waters through headgates and into canals ; and the whole
view, when seen from far up, is one of shimmering lines
of silver in the valley and shimmering fields of gold upon
the hills.
A great chain of mountains, standing upon the Idaho-
Wyoming boundary, fences this valley in the east. Upon
the north it is rimmed by the Continental Divide. And in
the west, more remotely, far over the arid steppe which
water will never reclaim, is the magnificent Sawtooth
Range. Here are peaks reaching altitudes of more than
twelve thousand feet, among which are many tiny valleys,
some holding lakes, some fertile, tilled basins, and all of
them walled in by the forested slopes of other ranges. A
larger basin, holding smaller ones within its area, is that
in which the Salmon River and its tributaries lie. It has
an area of about fourteen thousand square miles. Bounded
on the west by the wild Seven Devils area, on the north
by the Clearwater Mountains, on the east by the Beaver-
head Mountains, it looks southward to the Sawtooth and
Salmon Ranges. At no point does this elevation fall
below four thousand feet, and in most of it the altitude is
considerably more than a mile. Westward is the Primitive
80 IDAHO
Area. Eastward, looking across at one another, are Mount
Hyndman and Mount Borah, the two highest reaches in
the State.
Under its surface, this area is quite unlike that of the
desolate steppe south of it. The underlying formation,
dating from the Pre-Cambrian to the Mississippian Ages,
is granite overlaid by sedimentary beds, folded and eroded.
Possibly the lower stratum ranges from basalts to rhyo-
lites ; the middle is of volcanic ash and sandstones ; and the
two are capped by rhyolitic flows. The eroded alluvial de-
posits have left high level terraces of sand and gravel. And
on their surface, this alpine region and the steppe south are
sharp and complete in their contrast. One is a black and
gray area of impregnable stone. The other is a region of
tumultuous rivers and tiny sheltered basins, of a vast
rolling acreage of high meadows and forested canyons and
white zeniths. And yet upon a part of their boundaries
these two areas touch.
The Salmon River here, often called the River of No
Return, is a physical phenomenon in itself. It is the
headlong and furious stream that Clark entered in 1805
only to turn back after he had followed it fifty miles ; and
it is the river that a few others, since that day, have
ventured to navigate, some to emerge with their hair
standing on end and others never to emerge at all. "The
boat trip from Salmon to Lewiston through three hun-
dred and ten miles of the Salmon River and lower Snake
River Canyons is a scenic and sporting event without
equal. "^ The river rises in the eastern slopes of the
Sawtooth Range near Galena Summit among the lovely
lakes of Alturas, Redfish, and Stanley, all of glacial origin,
and flows northwest for thirty miles. Then it abruptly
turns eastward through a canyon, finds a small valley and
picks up the East Fork, and swings into the north. For
about a hundred miles it flows northward, gathering to its
breast two more rivers and several creeks; meets and
1 U. S. Department of Interior, Geological Survey of Water-
Supply Paper 657, p. 23.
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IDAHO FROM THE AIR 81
possesses the North Fork which has come down out of
the Bitterroot Range; and turns suddenly westward.
After about thirty miles it gathers the Middle Fork and
has now traveled two hundred miles without getting any
closer to Snake River, its point of delivery, than it was at
its source. But now, as if having learned by trial and
error, it plunges into its deep gorge, picks up two more
rivers, and takes its cold subterranean way down its
canyon for two hundred miles to its outlet. It hunts its
sunless way from cascade to cascade, and churns so furi-
ously that long stretches of its journey are rimmed with
froth and foam.
And the country around it is no less magnificent than
the river itself. Its mountainous breadth is the home of
hundreds of peaks, many of them unnamed, and of more
lovely lakes than have been named and explored, and of
millions of feet of timber in which there has never been
the sound of an axe. This is in many parts of it an un-
discovered forested wilderness and presents, when seen
from the air or from its own altitudes, some quite over-
whelming contrasts. It has many a broad sweep of ragged
peaks and high almost inaccessible pockets where moun-
tain sheep live; but adjacent to any of these more formi-
dable reaches, and in almost any direction, there are lakes
of utmost loveliness and serenity, or impassable jungles
of fir and lodgepole and pine, or meadows where wild
flowers grow dense and knee-deep, or river gorges drop-
ping sharp and sudden to the white-capped waters below.
There are innumerable smaller streams hidden by shadow
and jungle growth where the fish have never seen an
angler. There are little mining towns dropped down into
the mountainous pockets, or little hamlets like Stanley
in Stanley Basin, like Cape Horn, where the frontier still
lives almost isolated from the world, and mountaineers
are still a law unto themselves.
From the tallest peaks here there is a drop of more
than ten thousand feet to Boise which, from the head-
waters of the Salmon River, is less than eighty miles
82 IDAHO
into the southwest. Here, in western Idaho, are several
valleys upon the gently rolling watersheds of several
rivers, the largest of which, the Snake, lies for a thousand
miles within Idaho or upon its boundary. Falling within
the belt of prevailing westerly winds and subjected to
the ameliorating influence of the Pacific Ocean, these
valleys lying from the Sawtooth foothills to the Oregon
line have an unusually mild climate for this latitude. The
winters are temperate, with zero weather rare, and with
the snowfall for the most part little more than a sleety
mist of rain. The summers are long and cloudless, and
irrigation here is necessary, as in all of Idaho elsewhere
save in the northern part. Upon these separate adjacent
valleys there are more than a half million acres under
irrigation, much of which is given to alfalfa and clover,
to fruit orchards, and to celery and lettuce fields. There
are also dairy herds, potatoes and onions, beans and peas ;
but the personality of this part of the State is to be found
in its gentle climate with its not infrequent Indian sum-
mer in midwinter, and in its thousands of acres of or-
chards, white with bloom in springtime and memorialized
in festivals, and blue and red and purple with fruit in late
summer and early fall. Some of these single fruit gardens
show long corridors of blossom or fruit running for miles.
When, in late spring, the westerly winds come across Ore-
gon, the fragrance from these orchards and fields is in
the air and the sky is swept clean to its deepest
blue, with the cool northern background nebulous in white
or purple mist. The reach of these valleys is about a
hundred miles. In climate, in personality, and mood, they
are quite unlike any other part of the State.
Three hundred miles north of them is a region wholly
different. Here, in the upper Panhandle, is an area of
surpassingly lovely lakes and of great evergreen forests,
with cities standing literally within the shadow of larch
and hemlock and pine. Some of these cities are on the
margins of lakes against great forested backdrops; and
some, built within the forests themselves, look from a
IDAHO FROM THE AIR 83
distance as if the trees had grown up through sidewalk
and pavement and every front yard. And again, when
seen at a distance and against twilight, some of these
towns look like nothing so much as a half a million lighted
Christmas trees. They are all drenched with the smell of
conifers and fresh-water lakes and cool mountainous
reaches. After the central steppe, or the valley of po-
tatoes, or the valleys of vegetables and fruits, it is diffi-
cult to think of this American Switzerland as a part of
Idaho. Formerly this region was a huge lake, from which
there still remain Pend d'Oreille, one of the largest fresh-
water lakes wholly within the United States, and Coeur
d'Alene, besides many others. The Kootenai River and the
Clark Fork of the Columbia, entering from north and east,
flow across the State here ; the Coeur d'Alene and St. Joe
Rivers flow into Lake Coeur d'Alene, and the Spokane
River flows out of it; and besides these rivers there are
the Priest, Palouse, and Potlatch, and farther south the
St. Maries, Clearwater, and Lochsa. This area, seen from
the air, is one of rivers and mountain streams, of almost
countless lakes, and of great dark blankets of forest. Lake
Coeur d'Alene has the nebulous reputation of being the
fifth loveliest lake in the world: along its shores, as well
as upon the shores of other lakes here, are some superbly
scenic highways ; the summer homes of wealthy persons ;
and the downsweeping backdrops of timber so dense that
it is almost blue-black. More rain falls here than over
most of Idaho ; and even at lower altitudes where cities
lie, snow sometimes reaches a depth of eight or ten feet.
But this region, nevertheless, lying as it does within
western winds, has a surprisingly mild climate for its
latitude, and often is neither so hot nor so cold as parts
of the State six hundred miles south. This small scenic
wonderland belongs topographically to eastern Washing-
ton and is much closer in kinship with Spokane than with
Boise. It is, indeed, so remote in both interests and distance
from the great bulk of Idaho that a resident of the Snake
River Valley feels less at home, upon coming here, than
84 IDAHO
he would have felt if he had gone into Montana, Wyoming,
or Utah.
And far south, against the Nevada line, is to be found
another remarkable contrast. Here, within one county, is
a great region larger than the two smallest Eastern States
put together, and so barren and bleak and terrify-
ing in most of it that even sagebrush and greasewood
grow precariously, and what was supposed to have been
in part an ancient lake bed is an overwhelming waste.
Snake River cuts across its northern extremity, but even
here, in bizarre desolation, with black basalt towering in
vivid bluffs against pale-colored sediments, very little
grass grows and only a few stunted trees. Much of
Owyhee County is an area of ghost towns. Largest of
these is Silver City, six thousand feet up, and citadel of
this overwhelming homelessness, where snow, hurried by
terrific freezing winds, is heaped into drifts large enough
to bury a town.
But this northern stretch of Nevada, lying strangely
within the boundaries of Idaho, is not a level tableland
of desert. It is anything but that. Channeled and gouged
and eroded, scabrous and cragged, it is a huge area of
materials for a steppe that have never been ordered and
flattened out. Snake River, rising in its South Fork at
the base of the mighty Teton Peaks, crosses Idaho for
hundreds of miles down a valley that is from 35 to 125
miles wide. It comes through silted regions and lava
plains, over great waterfalls and down sunken gorges;
and this southwestern part of Idaho looks as if the river
for countless centuries had deposited its cargoes here.
The flanks of the Owyhee Range, long ago, were flooded
with rhyolitic outpourings and topped with enormous
basaltic masses. An accumulation of these dammed the
middle drainage basin of the river; a depression was
formed and then filled with sediments from the eroded
areas; and after the first immense outbursts came the
lake beds and continued eruptions. The climate here was
mild and moist then, and a huge lake is thought to have
IDAHO FROM THE AIR 85
been formed that soon reached its upper levels and then
broke and poured into lower Snake River Canyon which
had already cut deep upon its path. This whole region, laid
under the dramatic sculpturing of turmoil for a long
period, is today one of the most picturesque terrains in the
West ; and it is because of the enormous shifting of valleys
and mountains ages ago that the whole area now presents
such terrifying aspects.
Today, in this region, granitic scarps and ledges are
exposed for long distances, or the rock lies in long back-
bones that are cut across by deep and narrow gorges.
War Eagle Mountain is diked and veined with the records
of a once turbulent time. On the plateaus falling away
from the range are old lake beds laid down on granite
foundations and covered now with tremendous avalanches
of basalt; and in other areas are shales and limestones,
compact clays of fluviatile gravels, and irregularly eroded
bluffs, all of which, in their arid colors, give to the region
an unusual picturesqueness. There are solid rock dikes
ten feet wide and hundreds of feet long. There are deep
trenches in the ancient beds with barren mesas between.
And under it all is not only the Owyhee batholith, still
masked and disguised on its surface with overlapping
volcanics, or faulted and folded into an overwhelming
panorama of monuments and terraces and deep river
tunnels; under it there is nobody knows how much im-
prisoned water lying in lakes below the lava a thousand
feet or more in depth.
This Owyhee country, summarized here as a desert,
is less a desert than a great natural monument of rivers
bedded in stone. Besides three rivers that drain it, there
are several large creeks, and all of these for the most part
lie deep in their narrow sunless canyons sculptured out
of rock. Of very narrow gorges, that of the Bruneau
River is said to be one of the deepest on earth. A person
can stand and look out over the torn miles and believe
there is no water anywhere within the sky line; and he
86 IDAHO
can go to what seemed to be only a broken path of
shadow and look down a thousand feet to foaming tor-
rents in river beds where the sun never strikes. Or a
person can stand on the eminence of Sugarloaf Butte and
realize that no one lives east, south, north, or west as far
as he can see.
Just east of Owyhee County lies one of Idaho's four
principal valleys, and this, too, not long ago, was a prairie
of sagebrush and buffalo grass, coyotes and rattlesnakes
and horned toads. Here is the State's most dramatic
chapter in reclamation, and a valley now no less fertile
and productive than the one famous for its potatoes or
the other for its prunes. Far at its eastern end, the
engineering feat of the American Falls Reservoir, largest
in the State, and impounding one million and seven hun-
dred thousand acre-feet of water, was more than ordi-
narily spectacular; but one reservoir was not enough.
The Milner Dam, undertaken and completed through pri-
vate initiative, diverted water to almost a quarter of a
million acres in the areas north and south of Twin Falls ;
and the Minidoka Dam added another fifty thousand to
make the largest contiguous irrigated area in the United
States. Of this region Washington Irving once wrote:
"It is a land where no man permanently resides; a vast, unin-
habited solitude, with precipitous cliffs and yawning ravines, look-
ing like the ruins of a world; vast desert tracts that must ever
defy cultivation and interpose dreary and thirsty wilds between
the habitations of man."
He could hardly be expected to know this country if he
were to rise today and look around him. And yet he
might, too, for this Twin Falls section of Idaho has many
remarkable features of its own. It was here that Snake
River, before reclamation broke its might, poured its flood
over cascade after cascade, the deepest of which, the
Shoshone, has been called the Niagara of the West. No
less impressive are two cities of rock, one of them volcanic
in origin, the other of granite and calcareous limestone
shaped by wind and water and sand, and both of them
IDAHO FROM THE AIR 87
looking like an assortment of Gothic cathedrals that have
fallen into ruins.
Three hundred miles on a beeline into the northwest
from this valley of dairy herds and beans and potatoes,
hay and fruit, is perhaps the most nearly unique spot in
Idaho. From the mountain rim north of it, a person's gaze
goes westward over Washington to a broad and apparent-
ly limitless sweep of rolling distance that Irvin Cobb
declared to be the most breath-taking vision of his jour-
ney through the Northwest. Still from this rim, the gaze
turns southward and drops two thousand feet to the junc-
tion of two great rivers, the Snake and the Clearwater,
and to what is strangely and most unmistakably a city.
Lewiston is one of the largest cities in Idaho, walled in by
great mountains save for the slender valleys down which
the rivers come. It is a city almost entirely of one long
street, and a river running parallel on the north and a
mountain abutting the buildings on the south. And at
first glance there seem to be only mountains and two
rivers and a city. There is much more. The industrial
life of this place swings out and around in concentric arcs
of increasing size. The shorter radii reach out and touch
the business district and the homes ; and within the next
circular segment are to be found one of the world's largest
sawmills, and fruit orchards so vast that more than two
thousand persons live within their area ; and in the next
wide swing are to be found the Clearwater forests and
the valley farms; and within the last huge arc are the
mines. This city, the lowest point in Idaho, is spoken of
as the State's only seaport because ships come up the
Columbia and the Snake to its door. Together with its
long narrow valleys, it is protected from extremes of
climate and from winds; and because it is so sheltered
and because it is flanked by huge orchards and forests, it
smells like a garden in springtime, and like a harvest of
fruit and mountain water and pine boughs in the fall.
Such briefly in word and picture, presented candidly
in sharp panoramic contrasts, is the State which in Indian
88 IDAHO
language means sunrise. It is geographically so dis-
parate that persons living in one part of it are less fa-
miliar with much of the remainder than they are with
States contiguous to their position. If Spokane in Wash-
ington is in some respects the cultural center of northern
Idaho, Salt Lake City, a thousand miles away, is the
cultural center of the southeast and east. For Idaho is a
State which is divided in many ways against itself; and
if it gains thereupon in diversity of picturesqueness and
in sharp differences in grandeur and scene, it loses in in-
dustrial and cultural integrity. Without homologous
structure and centralization of interests, it spreads dif-
fusely into all the States roundabout, and has, more than
many others, an obscure indecision within the symbolism
of its name. Idaho for some may mean chiefly the mag-
nificent forested areas and the subalpine lakes from which
one of the chief agricultural regions is twice as remote in
distance and interests as Seattle or Portland. Or for some
it may mean chiefly the thousands of bags of potatoes
that are standing row on row in the fields when the
distant mountain maple is scarlet and the cottonwoods
along the river bottoms are like piles of yellow bloom.
For others Idaho may mean chiefly the small towns iso-
lated in the tops of mountains to which in wintertime the
only means of travel is by airplane. In these subalpine
basins persons live throughout the year within the smell
of high white peaks and pine and spruce, and within reach
of thousands of wild animals of many kinds. For others
Idaho may mean the rolling unirrigated grainlands where
the summers are hot and too often rainless, and water,
in a State that has so much, has to be hauled for both man
and beast. Here there is quietness like that on grave-
yards. Or Idaho may have meaning chiefly in wetness and
sound where one fall after another takes the mighty
pouring of the Mad River through its canyon or where
thousands of springs burst from the walls of stone. Or
Idaho may mean the hushed desolation of ghost towns
where cities that once housed thousands of persons are
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IDAHO FROM THE AIR 89
now only the forsaken quiet of a few shacks. Many of
these towns, now given over to decay and specters, were
among the dramatic spots on the last frontiers. And
Idaho may, for still fewer persons, mean chiefly that deep-
est and in some respects most awful gorge on this con-
tinent. And this, the Grand Canyon or the Seven Devils
Gorge, is only one of the many phenomenal spots to which
Idaho highways lead.
1
V
FLORA
V
FLORA
THE DOUGLAS FIR (not a fir at all, and often known
as Douglas spruce, red pine, Oregon pine) is fourth
in size of the trees of earth but does not in Idaho reach
the proportions found on the Pacific Coast. It is one of
the stateliest of trees, with a straight tapering shaft and
a magnificent bulk of foliage; and in nurseries it is the
fastest growing of all evergreens. Its wood is the tough-
est of all American conifers. In Idaho it is one of the
commonest and commercially one of the most valuable
trees, growing at medium elevations with white fir, lodge-
pole, and yellow pine. Its rich green foliage, pointed buds,
and beautiful pendant cones distinguish it from all other
trees. Like it, the western larch is, in point of size and
height, among the seven most majestic trees on earth, but
this one is not common in Idaho. The larch may reach
a height of 250 feet, the fir 300, but such heights are
unusual. The larch is unlike any other conifer in having
almost no foliage after it reaches some size and in drop-
ping its leaves when winter comes. A mature tree has in
summertime a bushy top high in the air and a mighty
spire of trunk as straight as a lodgepole. Very slow in
growth, a larch only nine inches in diameter may have
been standing for fifty years : one tree examined was only
eighteen inches in diameter but had been a tree for a
quarter of a millennium and had taken eight years to
gather its last inch. It is this tree that gives the parklike
grandeur of ancient estates to the forest in which it is
94 IDAHO
found. Limned against light, its foliage has a silken
spidery loveliness because its unsheathed needles grow
in tufts or tiny spray brooms.
Even slower in growth is the Rocky Mountain red
cedar, a patriarch of the American forest and very similar
to the red cedar of the East. One of these in Logan Canyon
in Utah is three thousand years old, perhaps the oldest tree
in the intermountain area. A favorite with John Muir,
who made a study of it, this lonely baron, he said, wastes
out of existence when killed about as slowly as granite.
"Even when overthrown by avalanches, they refuse to lie
at rest, leaning stubbornly on their big elbows " Often
this tree is an ancient and windswept titan standing alone
on dry soil or rocky mountainside. The Giant Arborvitae
(giant cedar, canoe cedar) favors moist bottomlands in
the upper Clearwater and northern lakes region. It grows
to such mammoth size that it often outtops the sur-
rounding forest ; and was a favorite with Indians who ate
its fruit, used its soft wood for totem poles, or excavated
its huge trunks for canoes. Its lovely evergreen robing,
hanging in lacy sleeves, is much daintier than that of pine
or fir. The dwarf or mountain juniper is widely distributed
on upper mountain slopes and rocky ledges. More of a bush
than a tree, it is loaded with blue-gray berrylike cones in
wintertime, and these are a favorite with wild birds.
Of the several pines found in Idaho, two species are
unusual. Western yellow pine is another titan of the
Western forests and one of the most beautiful trees, with
its golden bark, its deep black seams, and its straight
stateliness. The most extensive pine forests in the world
are of yellow pine in the Northwest, wherein the bulk is
estimated at two hundred and fifty billions of feet.
Hardier than most trees and amazingly adaptable to
rigorous conditions, this tree grows to great size in arid
foothills of volcanic origin, or on mesas of the Southwest,
where it is the chief source of lumber, or in the compara-
tively rainless area of western Nebraska, or on swampy
slopes of the Cascades, or high in mountains against the
FLORA 95
timber line. Because it is a huge tree at maturity, it was
called bull pine by frontiersmen; because it is so heavy
it will barely float in water, it has been called ponderosa
by lumbermen. Ponderosa pine is its trade name over
the Nation. In even greater favor for lumber is white
pine, a much smaller tree. Because its lower limbs die so
young that the lower trunk is almost without knots, the
wood of this tree with its white soft texture has been
eagerly sought. It is now planned to preserve areas for
the study of hydrophytic and mesophytic growths of
western white pine, western cedar, and western hemlock.
One such area, the Roosevelt Grove of gigantic cedars,
has already been set aside in northern Idaho. Here are
magnificent trees a thousand years old bedded down in
alpine flora of mosses, lycopods, ferns, and evergreens.
The white pine is found only in the northern part of the
State and is perhaps the commonest tree seen from the
highways.
Lodgepole pine is the commonest evergreen tree in
Idaho and one of the most uniformly straight of all trees
that grow. And because it tapers so little, it has long
been in favor for the building of mountain cabins, many
of the most unusual of which are to be seen in Yellow-
stone Park. In Idaho this tree grows in dense stands in
flat and protected areas and forms many a beautiful cor-
ridor along the scenic highways. A strange tree, and
one of the most unconquerable of alpine conifers, is the
white bark pine which occurs only in the north part of
central Idaho and in western Wyoming. It grows high,
often rimming the world and often getting flattened into
a mass of boughs and ice ; and even at lower levels moun-
taineers sometimes build their beds on the wide flat
branches lying on the earth. At their topmost elevations
these hardy trees are dwarfed and beaten down but sel-
dom killed and they often look like young trees when in
fact they are remarkably old. Muir says he measured
one that was only three feet high but had been a tree for
four hundred and twenty-six years: one of its supple
96 IDAHO
twigs was only one eighth of an inch in diameter but
was seventy-five years old and so tough that Muir tied
it into knots. Usually found with it is limber pine, a
crooked stunted tree that seeks dry rocky hillsides and
other severe sites. There are two species of pifion pine
found only in the extreme southern part of the State:
both are small round-topped dwarfs at dry low elevations,
and though of little commercial value, their seeds are
edible and are sometimes marketed.
Pines are identified by their needles gathered at the
base in bunches of from one to five and by the thick
woody scales on their cones ; spruces by their sharp point-
ed single needles and by cones with parchmentlike scales.
The most beautiful spruce in Idaho is the Engelmann, the
white spruce of the Rocky Mountains. It grows at high
levels and sometimes is mantled with snow during most
of the year ; but in late spring it is lovely in bluish-green
foliage, and in autumn its showy brown cones scatter
their black-winged seeds. It shares in some degree the
popularity of the blue spruce as an ornamental tree and in
Idaho is fairly common within its range. The blue spruce
is found only in the extreme southeastern part of the
State.
Firs are identified by their blunt grooved needles and
by their almost invisible cones that stand erect on the
upper branches of the tree. The balsam fir is when found
in its native area a beautiful tree, broad and symmetri-
cally branched, and sometimes running to more than a
hundred and fifty feet in height. The bluish-green foliage
is often intensified by the bright indigo of the flowers;
and the purple cones complete the striking picture of this
fir when left standing alone by loggers to reseed the half
acre of its home. At lower elevations is the white fir,
usually close by streams, upon which it often forms beau-
tiful borders. This tree is called black balsam in Utah ; its
bark is darker in color than that of balsam fir, and its
foliage is a dark blue-green. Both of these firs, but espe-
cially the balsam or alpine, yield a thick juice that In-
p7.
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-tw
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White pine and cedar
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Matured yellow pine
White bark pine: two grotesques
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FLORA 97
dians and old-timers used for the healing of bruises and
cuts. Lowland white fir is found in the intermountain
region only in western Idaho, in the Weiser, Payette, and
Idaho National Forests, from which it has spread far to
the north and west. It is difficult to tell from alpine fir
but it grows at lower elevations, has a wider crown, and
usually a broad spread in its limbs.
The alpine larch scorns low altitudes and prefers the
highest tablelands, where it chooses the most bleak and
windswept ledges and exposes itself to every peril of tem-
perature and storm. Often close by is the mountain hem-
lock, sometimes called black hemlock, or even spruce or
fir or pine, the tree which Sargent declared to be the
loveliest of the cone bearers in American forests. A
mature tree may be four feet in diameter and a hundred
feet in height, with gracefully drooping branches, each
with a feathery sheath of gently arching evergreen
needles, and beautifully colored cones. This tree grows
"along the margins of alpine meadows in groves of ex-
quisite beauty, pushing the advance guard of the forest
to the edge of living glaciers." In Idaho it is found only
in the north and chiefly at the upper tree limits of the
Clearwater area. Transplanted to Eastern States, this
lovely tree withers to the size of a dwarf and loses all its
grace. The western hemlock is also a tall tree with lacy
branches. Its shorter needles do not clothe the limbs in
a tight sheath but spray out in tufts. This tree has been
known to reach two hundred feet in height and nine feet
in diameter.
For some persons the loveliest of all evergreens is the
mountain laurel, though in Idaho the species is usually only
a low shrub. When a tree, it has a dense round head, red or
yellow bark, flowers in large compound corymbs; and in
June and July may hide its brilliant leaves with clusters of
flowers spreading in masses often a foot across. But this
beautiful heath is being stripped from its native hills by
nurserymen and collectors, as well as by vandals who
gather masses of loveliness to wither in heated homes. The
98 IDAHO
Pacific yew, commonly called mountain mahogany, covers
thousands of hillsides in Idaho and forms a favorite feed-
ing ground for deer in late spring. The Indians of Alaska
cut paddles and bows out of it, but today it is valuable only
as coverage for watersheds, though in autumn its brilliant
berries are the banquet of birds.
Shrubs: Of deciduous trees the Rocky Mountain ash
is a hardy wanderer but almost dainty in appearance,
with its graceful elderlike foliage and its tropical aspect.
It has remarkably showy flowers and fruit clusters, and
after its leaves are gone the broad disks of scarlet berries
cling until winter is almost done. This tree is not an ash
but belongs to the apple family and is sometimes called
apple chokecherry. Its buds are cream-colored before
they open, and its small white flowers are of exquisite
fragrance. All of Idaho's native deciduous trees are small
except the aspen and cottonwood, the latter of which is
found in pine belts of the north along streams, and in
southern and eastern Idaho along rivers and upon moist
bottom lands. There are several species but it is difficult
to tell them apart. From a distance, and against the sky
in autumn, the foliage of the cottonwood looks like great
masses of yellow sunset.
Commoner is the quaking aspen, which grows in dense
jungles upon thousands of semiarid hills and upon lower
mountain elevations facing the sun. Some horticulturists
say it is the most widely distributed of North American
trees. It thrives equally well in Chihuahua and Alberta ;
and throughout the Rocky Mountains it now covers great
areas that were once swept by fire; and over the entire
West has been the most important tree in determining the
kinds and distribution of evergreens. In springtime its
foliage is such a delicate green that it looks rain- washed ;
and in autumn, after the frosts, it covers countless hills
and mountains with clearest lemon yellow. But most gor-
geous of all Idaho trees in autumn coloring is the mountain
maple. Sometimes a tree, often a shrub only, especially
when growing on rocky slopes facing the sun, this maple
FLORA 99
ranges widely and thrives in the shade of evergreens. It
fills ravines with dense growth and after the first frosts it
stands in fields of brilliant scarlet.
There are numerous species of willow, including the
western black, the diamond, the mountain, and the sand-
bar, of which the latter is probably commonest. It grows
in thickets along streams, delays erosion, often prevents
the cutting of new channels, and helps to hold floods in
check. Found often with it is the white (tag) alder, an
impressive tree in later winter when it hangs its yellow
catkins while other deciduous trees are still asleep. Usu-
ally in company with it is the red or river birch with its
dotted bronzed bark and its fountain of leafy spray.
Nothing about the red birch is more noteworthy than the
speed with which it grows. In drier locations are the
serviceberry and chokecherry, both of them widely dis-
tributed throughout America. In Idaho the jungles of
both in late spring are gardens of blossom and fragrance ;
and in late summer (if the season has not been too arid)
they hang with fruit. Some botanists have said that the
chokecherry, once tasted, is forever scorned, even though
birds and Indians are fond of it; but many Idahoans
know better than that. They know that it makes jelly
second to none in its pungent and exotic flavor, and years
ago they learned, too, that wine made of it is, when prop-
erly aged, very rich and heady. Persons along the St.
Lawrence River must have discovered its uses also be-
cause it is earnestly cultivated there. The serviceberry,
too, is a favorite in Idaho. It is lovely in bloom, and its
fruit, a large, juicy, and full-flavored berry, eagerly
sought by Indians and birds and by early settlers, is still
preserved today. The Indians used to dry the berries for
winter use, or they pounded masses together into loaves
weighing fifteen pounds, which they later ate by breaking
off chunks and soaking them in water. A third fruit used
by pioneers is that of the hawthorn. This short tree or big
shrub with its great spread of branches and its deadly
thorns grows equally well on dry hillsides or along
100 IDAHO
streams. It is a flowering bush in late spring and is lovely
again after frost has turned its foliage into burnished
sheaves.
Of smaller shrubs, none are more striking than those
which produce both flowers and fruit. Growing high in
moist subalpine slopes and meadows among the Douglas
fir, is the thimbleberry with its large five-lobed leaves and
its perfect roselike blossom which measures two inches
across. Sometimes it is found in company with syringa
and ocean spray and spiraea and snowberry ; and all these,
with a wealth of flora tangled in thickets around them,
make gorgeous gardens in higher altitudes. The berry is
about the size of and in flavor is much like the red rasp-
berry, though some find the fruit thin and dry. And per-
haps it is, in comparison with that fruit which some de-
clare to be the most luscious wild berry that grows. The
huckleberry (and it is not the insipid blueberry which
east of the Rocky Mountains is usually called huckle-
berry) grows in patches of hundreds, often thousands, of
acres on high cool mountainsides. Usually it yields
abundantly though the fruit hangs singly and not in
clusters; and countless Westerners make pilgrimages in
August to gather the berries for preserving and for wine.
The shrub that bears this fruit is widely scattered in the
forests of the State and is so highly regarded along Ditch
Creek in the Salmon River country that this area is pro-
tected from grazing. The dwarf bilberry (or low whortle-
berry) is common in the central mountains and the north-
ern lakes region. It is a small shrub from three to seven
inches tall, hidden in the grass in meadows or on gentle
slopes, with the small green leaves bunched near the top.
In springtime lovely little pink-and-white bells appear
among the leaves and later become blue berries covered
with an attractive bloom. In autumn the leaves of this
shrub turn a deep red. The grouseberry or grouse whortle-
berry is found on higher slopes of the Western mountains
just below the tree line. These dwarfed bushes are less
than a foot in height but often cover their favorite alti-
FLORA 101
tudes with great patches and sometimes grow rampantly-
even in deep forests. Its leaves are small and finely-
toothed, and its flowers are tiny red goblets of single
bloom. By the middle of August the plant is dotted with
bright red berries of pleasant flavor which are held in
high esteem by grouse.
Of a different sort is the devil's club, a stalwart shrub
four or five feet tall with spiked stalks. The maplelike
leaves sprout from the stalk on a long stem about twelve
inches below the red berries and form a dense coverage
upon the ground. In the Selkirk Mountains the thickets are
almost impenetrable. The ivory baneberry prefers humus
soil by mountain streams in shady locations. The white
flowers appear in two-inch racemes at the top of slender
stems and are of sweet odor. When the berries ripen and
become heavy they overwhelm the stems supporting them
and soon fall. They are said to be poisonous like the seeds
of other members of the buttercup genus to which this
baneberry belongs. The red-osier dogwood, widely dis-
tributed along streams in both open and wooded areas, is
a pleasant shrub both in bloom and in fruit. In early fall,
spherical clusters of bluish-white berries show against
leaves turned scarlet, golden, or purple. To this shrub the
Indians gave the name kinnikinnick, the bark of which
they smoked in preference to that of any other plant. This
shrub seems also to go under the name of bearberry.
The twinberry, a famous little trailing evergreen of
the honeysuckle tribe and a delicate relative of the elder,
has a botanical name that honors the great Carolus
Linnaeus who always wore a sprig of it in his lapel when
he sat for a painting. Loving cool woods and moun-
tainous marshes of both hemispheres, it is found in Idaho
chiefly in the Seven Devils area and northward in the
cool forests. Pairs of pink bells sway at the tip of long
slender stalks and are much in favor for the delicacy and
charm of their fragrance. Its berries are of purple-black
color and are bitter to the taste. Quite different are the
two species of elderberry, found at lower elevations on
102 IDAHO
dry slopes and growing in single or multistemmed shrubs.
The bright red or black berries are widely used, and
especially in Utah, in the making of preserves and pies
and wines. The elderberry is a low shrub with opposite
compound leaves, flowers in clusters, and typical pithy
twigs. For California Indians the elder was the tree of
music because the straight young stems easily accommo-
dated themselves to the flute makers.
Snowberry, sometimes called corralberry or wolfberry,
is also widely scattered. An erect shrub from one to four
feet tall, and with slim glabrous branches, it grows
along streams and in less densely wooded areas. The
mountain snowberry is a southwestern shrub that follows
more arid hillsides, but the creeping snowberry with its
pungently delicious fruit prefers the wetter region of the
northern lakes. The salmonberry, too, grows in moist
woodlands. It has solitary and perfect reddish-purple
flowers and a golden fruit much like the raspberry. This
shrub grows from two to five feet in height. The small
cranberry favors bogs in the northern lakes region. It
is a typical boreal plant, and upon the retreat of glaciers
it migrated from its high refuge to the swamps formed
by the damming of streams. It now ranges throughout
the glaciated territory of the northern hemisphere. It
has feathery green mats of foliage that hug the ground,
tiny reddish-pink flowers at the end of threadlike red-
dish stems, and curling elongated sheaths on the ground
runners.
The swamp black currant (prickly currant) is a very
beautiful bush in blossom. Dainty racemes of yellowish
flowers shaded with red are the center of scattered color
among the dainty leaves. In full sunlight this shrub is
so attractive as to command instant attention. Found in
Idaho in moist woods and along streams, it has small dark
berries that are in favor as a sauce with venison. The
hackberry grows on arid rocky bluffs or in low hot valleys,
particularly along the Snake and Salmon River Canyons.
It is a low shrub with drooping branches and a reddish-
FLORA 103
brown berry of thin sweet meat. The wood of this plant
is so tough that the breaking of even a small twig is diffi-
cult. There are also wild currants with their piquantly
flavored yellow or black fruit, and wild gooseberries, both
of which were in favor with frontiersmen.
The Pacific flowering dogwood, discovered as recently
as 1902, inhabits the woods of the upper Clearwater
region. In spring it is a glorious vision of white bloom,
and it escaped attention for so long only because it grows
in remote places. The beauty of this shrub is less in its
small tubelike flowers than in the four large petallike
scales or bracts that surround them. In the Eastern spe-
cies, these bracts inclose the flowers during the winter,
but in the Western species the bracts instead of embrac-
ing the flowers are borne beneath them. This shrub in
autumn is covered with crimson berries. The burning
bush (wahoo, prickwood, spindletree) , a close relative of
the climbing false bittersweet, is a curious little tree that
looks much like the wild plum except for its bark. Its
flowers are in purple petals of four ; and its fruit of four
flat lobes in a purple husk that opens to show a scarlet
interior, together with colored twigs and leaves, gives to
this bush its name. In midwinter there is no more vivid
spot of color in the landscape.
The purple heather is one of the principal charms of
mountain meadows and upper crests in the central part of
the State and in the Bitterroot Mountains. A low evergreen
shrub, often growing in clumps several feet in width, it has
numerous alternate leaves minutely serrated that crowd
the branches and are so nearly stemless that they seem to
sprout from the limbs themselves. The flowers are usually
magenta pink, though variations occur. The lovely white
heather was named Cassiope by Muir, with whom it was a
favorite. Found on high summits, this low-branching ever-
green with slim ascending stems often less than a foot high
is cloaked in an overlapping sheath of leaves arranged in
fours. From the axils of the leaves, tiny bowls of white
bloom, sometimes gently flushed like a pale pink lily of
104 IDAHO
the valley, nod on graceful threadlike stems. The twin-
flower, found from the Seven Devils area northward, is a
dainty trailing evergreen vine unsurpassed in its demure
loveliness. This member of the honeysuckle family has
tiny pinkish flower bells that droop at half-mast and are
of such sweetly penetrating fragrance that the smell of
their bloom is often evident in trains passing along moun-
tains where the plant is found. The American vetch is
another graceful and lovely vine found in moist woods and
thickets. It clings tenaciously to any available support
and sprouts in vivacious green leaves and in washed pur-
ple flowers in clusters of long slender bloom.
Moss and Ferns: The flora of Idaho, especially in much
of the forested area, is a dense undergrowth of moss and
fern. Of the latter the running pine is common in shady
places. In Europe the spores of this strikingly denticulated
prostrate creeper are gathered for lycopodium powder.
The ground cedar is another creeper with a wide geograph-
ical range. It creeps, or thrusts upright branches that
spread in fans, with the inner row of leaves along the stems
looking like the tips of leaves only. Less lovely but more
widely distributed in Idaho is the scouring-brush, one of
the commonest of the large horsetails. Its rough silicious
fiber used to be widely favored in the scouring of pots and
pans and it is still put to such uses in remoter places.
Known variously as scrub-grass, snake-rush, gun-bright,
snake-grass, and winter-rush, it is used in Holland to
prevent erosion, and was shipped to England as scouring
material and took the name of Dutch clean-rush. Swamp
horsetail flourishes in marshes and along streams. In
Sweden it is fed to cows to increase their butterfat, and in
Lapland it is one of the chief foods of reindeer. In parts
of America it is sometimes cut for hay, and in Idaho cat-
tle are said to prefer it to grass, and in the menu of musk-
rats it is a favorite.
Much lovelier, perhaps loveliest of all grape ferns, is
the Virginia, often called rattlesnake fern because its
spored tips resemble the tail of a rattler, or "sang sign" in
> ■ •■■■t^..
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Mountain ash
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Syrlnga: Idaho Sfafe Flower
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Sego lily: Utah State Flower
FLORA 105
Kentucky, where it is declared to keep the tip of its leaf for-
ever pointing at a ginseng plant. Of another sort is the
brake (bracken) which grows in rank abundance and is es-
pecially common in the northern part of the State. It has
enormous leaves, sometimes, as in New Zealand, twenty
feet long, and often fourteen feet long in the Northwest.
Eaten only by goats, impervious to drouth, and growing to
a height of six or seven feet, this fern makes parts of Idaho
look densely tropical. Indians used its rhizomes for food,
and in parts of the world it is still eaten as asparagus, but
what with one plant sometimes covering an area of eighty
square feet, it is often an unconquerable pest now on
logged-off lands. Hunters and trappers formerly used
these plants as a mattress.
Quite different is the common maidenhair, a graceful
fern with very thin leaves which Indians laid upon strips
of cedar to make beds for drying wild berries. This fern
prefers shady banks with water seeping out of the soil.
Still more delicate in its tracery and more widely dis-
tributed in Idaho is the Rocky Mountain Woodsia, a
long, slender, and remarkably symmetrical fern. The
male fern is found in Idaho, too, and the lady fern as
well : long ago, herbalists thought these two represented
the sexes somehow, though precisely in what manner,
inasmuch as the two ferns live side by side in peace, is
not known. Their sex, one authority declared, was "just
figurative." In Idaho the lady fern grows high in the
mountains, as on Packsaddle Peak, and looks out from
under boulders. Of another species is the clover fern, a
small and lovely plant that folds up at night and goes to
sleep.
There are countless other ferns which help to make
undergrowth jungles in forests. Alaskan club moss, a
creeping plant with erect tufted branches, grows at great
altitudes, even reaching above the timber line. Leathery
grape fern is remarkable because of its size: it often
looks more like a tree and is found over much of the
Northwest. The spinulose woodfern is the kind that helps
106 IDAHO
to give loveliness to wooded regions, together with fir club
moss, bladder fern, wood fern, and oak fern. Historically
interesting is the parasitic licorice fern which grows on
maples and red alders. Some early settlers used it to
flavor tobacco, and children today like to chew the rhizome
for its licorice. The sword fern is a handsome plant that
looks vaguely like fifty or sixty knife blades with their
handles buried in a single shaft. A favorite for decora-
tion, carloads of it are shipped annually from the North-
west to be used in the East in the making of wreaths.
Flowers: Because so much of Idaho visible from rail-
way coaches and highways seems to be arid region save
where irrigated, it may not uncommonly be supposed that
the State is relatively flowerless. This is by no means true.
Many States, especially in the Middle West, are almost
wholly under cultivation, and the wild flowers they once
had have been driven to corner copses and ditchbanks and
roadsides. In Idaho, where so extremely small a part of
the area is under cultivation, wild flowers have suffered
from no enemy except human beings and cattle and sheep.
From intensively grazed sections most of the wild flowers
have largely disappeared, but in other sections, and par-
ticularly in the north, there are huge gardens of thou-
sands of acres of almost continuous bloom. The varieties,
too, are so many that it would take a small book merely
to list their names. In the following pages only a selected
list is given, and chiefly those that are commonest or
rarest or loveliest.
The State flower of Idaho is the syringa, a native
variety of mock orange that was discovered by Captain
Lewis. It is a tall bush from six to twelve feet in height
that is found on mountainsides, forest borders, and along
streams; and in parts of the state, especially the north-
ern, its white bloom in June and July sometimes reaches
for unbroken miles. The stems of this shrub the Indians
used for bows, and the macerated leaves they used for
soap. The squaws used the stems to cradle their infants.
These stems were also used by Indians for tobacco pipes,
FLORA 107
and to excavate the pith they cannily allowed grubs of
beetles to eat their way from end to end. A more famous
flower in the records and legends of early explorers, and
an important food of Western Indians, was the camas,
which made many a meadow blue. Its blossoms spread in
dense gardens in wetter places, and these from a distance
look like lakes of blue water. Its liliaceous edible bulb
was steamed for twenty-four hours or longer in a kind
of fireless cooker of heated stones. Indians fought wars
for possession of camas meadows ; and the Bannack War
itself was caused in part at least by white invasion of
camas fields. The flowers, from a dozen to thirty on a
pedicel, are blue or white and bloom from April to July.
Idaho has memorialized this flower in the name of a
prairie and a town.
Of other flowers chiefly affecting mountain meadows
none is lovelier than the columbine, which blooms from
May to August. Erect, with branching stalks three feet
tall, its flowers are to be found in scarlet, yellow, blue, or
white, sometimes looking, when thrust up from a tangle
of ferns, as if they were disembodied loveliness growing
on the air. There are several species of beardtongue or
blue pentstemon, slender flowers of remarkably delicate
beauty with their crowded whorls of blue petals. Those in
high meadows bloom in July and August, and those along
streams earlier. The western buttercup may also grow in
fields or even among sagebrush. Especially striking is a
meadow when the golden buttercup and the blue camas
carpet the earth. The tall larkspur is usually from two
to four feet in height, and if not crowded its basal leaves
form a green bower from which rise long spikes of stalk
with rich purple-blue flowers poised on the stems like
so many floral butterflies. Linnaeus gave it the name of
Delphinium because he fancied a resemblance to a
dolphin.
The mountain daisy (also called fleabane) , a compound
flower of striking size and coloring, is one of the most
conspicuous in high valleys. The large golden-yellow cen-
108 IDAHO
ters are surrounded by graceful purple rays of varying
tints. Much smaller, and always closed on cloudy days, is
the blue gentian: the moment the sun strikes them, the
petals, hardly more than scallops at the top of a deep
flower goblet, open and flare out to show their regal
purple. The alpine Androsace is a tiny member of the
primrose family, so daintily inconspicuous in both size
and coloring that it often escapes notice. The small nar-
row leaves clump thickly against the ground in a rosette
of green from which rise tendril stems almost as fine as
hairs, supporting the tiny five-petaled white blossoms.
The peacock sego grows twelve or fourteen inches high
and has purple spots on the broad petals of the white
bloom. Common in meadows, too, is blue-eyed grass with
its tiny flowers fading in a day and with its buds forever
opening to bloom again.
Deep in the forests are several species of orchid,
rarest of which is the phantom, a waxy white plant in stem
and leaf and petal, save for a golden spot within the
flower's throat. Blooming in May and June, and spectral
in its loveliness, its fragrance is as unusual as the flower
itself. Spotted coral root belongs to the parasitic orchids,
of which three species are found deep in moist woods in
the northern lakes region. The flowers are brownish pur-
ple, and the root resembles a branch of coral. Latest of
the orchids to bloom is the hooded tresses with its twisted
bloom that looks vaguely like a braid of hair. The flowers
are white or yellowish and are easily identified by the
dense curved line of blossom on the spike.
In comparison with the delicate sorrel of the East, the
mountain sorrel is a titan, with its heart-shaped leaves
bursting into huge showers of foliage. It prefers the
depths of forests but often is found on shaded mountain-
sides and along streams, blooming in May and June. It is
a menace to cattle because of their fondness for its lush
and succulent foliage.
Found in moist thickets is another group of lovely
plants. The wild lily of the valley, found in Idaho only
FLORA 109
or chiefly in wet shade in the northern lakes region, has
very small white blooms on stems eight to sixteen inches
high, and a red berry. False Solomon's-seal is a graceful
decorative plant. Each stem, terminating in a pyramid
of waxy bloom, rises in a curve from the earth. The
blooming period is April and May, and late in the sum-
mer the flowers produce an edible red berry. A single
lovely rose-purple bloom hanging at the end of a rosy
stem gives to calypso its common name of fairy slipper.
The tiny slipper-shaped flower, two of its petals forming
an upward-flaring ribbon at the back and with the toe
decorated with yellow fuzz, has been long fancied as a
fairy's foot.
If it were not for its sharply penetrating fragrance,
wood nymph (one-flowered wintergreen) would escape
notice. It belongs to the Pyrola family and is a genus of
its own. The leafless stems, rising from green rosettes
and hidden by moss, support five-petaled yellowish-white
flowers which against contrasting background look like
five deep scallops drawn together and closed. Mourning
groundsel was named because of the massacre in the
Yukon of a party of Eskimos, but is called black-tipped
groundsel by St. John. The plant is one of central stalk
about a foot in height, sprouting from a rosette of long
streamerlike leaves, and putting forth an irregular spray
of six spidery yellow flowers which bud out from as many
slender stems. A deep chalice of green sepals holds a big
orange-yellow center, and from this radiate pale yellow
rays like so many insect legs at loose ends.
The alpine beauty has drooped under the names given
to it. Called CHntonia by some after a New York politician
named Clinton, and queencup by a Canadian royalist, it
suffers in Oregon under the name of alpine beauty. Its
commonest name in Idaho has not been learned. It grows
abundantly in Idaho and often covers the earth with its
remarkably beautiful leaves and its solitary lilylike
flower. Called western bluebell by Walcott and languid
lady by St. John, the martensia, a cousin of the forget-
110 IDAHO
me-not and the heliotrope, grows in large clumps under
favorable conditions. The leaves are stemless, two or
more cupping together at a single place in the stalk to
curve outward and downward in a sort of pointed horse's
ear. From the juncture of leaves and stalk droops the long
pendulous blossom on slender curved stems as if the in-
verted bell were emptying itself of fragrance.
Scattered more widely are many submontane species.
Named horrendously avalanche lily by some, lamb's
tongue by others, easter bells in Utah, dog-toothed violet
in the East (against which Burroughs revolted, only to
suggest nothing better than fawn hly) , and trout lily by
fishermen who have seen it blooming at the opening of the
season, this flower is, in spite of the many folknames
it has suffered, one of the commonest and loveliest in
Idaho. It pushes up at the edge of melting snow, rarely
at altitudes below four thousand feet, and flowers into
yellow blooms of exquisite fragrance. Sometimes it is
found in company with violets, buttercups, and spring
beauties (queencups). The smooth yellow violet is a
charming golden flower that is found chiefly in central
and northern Idaho, but the yellow bell (yellow fritil-
laria) is found in Snake River Canyon as well. Its flowers,
yellow or orange tinged with purple, nod on stems four
to six inches high. The wild hyacinth, also found through-
out the State, has blue funnel-shaped flowers in clusters,
and edible bulbs that were used by Indians for bread. The
white or Rocky Mountain rhododendron is a beautiful
plant which does not have, like the Eastern species,
a glossy evergreen foliage. Its leaves are deciduous. Its
flowers are bunched along the leafy twigs instead of being
concentrated at the ends of branches in clusters. These
are fragrant and creamy, suffused with pink, and recall
the waxen charm of orange blossoms.
The showy fleabane is one of a large number of flowers
that achieve fullest development in Western States ; and in
Idaho this brilliant member of the aster family gives a gay
attire to lower slopes in June and July. The flowers thrust
FLORA 111
up in groups with one central perfect bloom surrounded by
half -open buds, with daisylike yellow centers in the laven-
der blossoms. The wake robin or western trillium, a mem-
ber of the lily family with its pure white bloom darkening
to deep purple, is especially abundant under the big cedars
on Pine Creek. The Clarkia, named for the explorer and
first found along the Clearwater River, is a low annual
with slender racemes of lilac flowers that deepen to rose.
After being discovered it was introduced into Europe and
has been widely cultivated there; and what was once
almost a botanical anomaly now has several varieties and
is known from London to Moscow, with ranges in color
through salmon pink and magenta to purple. The wild
hollyhock is a tall stately flower that sometimes covers
whole mountainsides and drenches the air with fragrance.
It is especially abundant in Wyoming on the eastern slope
of Teton Pass, and in northern Idaho.
Among aquatic or semiaquatic flowers are several
lilies. The tiger lily, blooming in June, prefers wet rich
soil and can be found in valleys at high elevations. It is
strikingly handsome with its orange blooms spotted brown
and borne in spreading panicles of as many as twenty
flowers. The water or yellow pond lily grows along lakes,
where its huge leaves float on the water and its sohtary
yellow flowers bloom from May to August. Wokash is the
Indian name. Some tribes made flour of the seed; and
with the Klamaths the gathering of the wokash was
preceded by a harvest dance. Almost a hundred years ago
observers reported having seen hundreds of bushels of
lily seed stored along marshes in tule sacks. The umbrella
plant, growing along streams or in wet rocky areas, is
named for a leaf so large that it can almost be used for a
parasol. It gives forth blossoms in early spring. More
lovely are its leaves, which were sometimes eaten by In-
dians, a circumstance from which it takes its common
name of Indian rhubarb. The crimson monkey flower is
another that borders streams. It blooms in July and
August. The flowers are in pairs on tall graceful pedicels,
112 IDAHO
and the color is usually rose red. Its succulent stems have
been used as a substitute for lettuce.
Water plantain, common on shores in the Palouse coun-
try, is a perennial with small white or pale pink flowers.
The twisted-stalk, a member of the lily-of-the-valley fami-
ly, is a tall branched plant with greenish- white flowers and
bright red oval berries which hang singly from fine arching
stems. The giant hellebore is still larger. A member of
the lily family, it has very showy green flowers that
strongly resemble the lady's slipper. The lower portion
hangs as if on a hinge and moves easily, and so gives to
the plant its folkname of chatterbox. Out of mud and
muck the arrowhead sends up large vividly green leaves
shaped like an arrow, and delicate whitish blossoms
sketchily petaled with yellow centers. The buckbean
(bogbean) has a genuinely beautiful blossom which, like
the forget-me-not, has a stem and foliage incapable of
setting it off as it deserves. The flowers are white with
pink and purple shadings and have a cut-petaled loveliness
rivaling that of the bog orchid. In full bloom they re-
semble tiny stars with all points curved down. This plant
grows in lakes and ponds ; the skunk cabbage in swamps.
Of green and golden beauty with a heavy sweet fra-
grance like that of tube roses, the skunk cabbage has done
well to survive under its name, or under an Indian legend
that gives to it a war club and an elkskin blanket. The
wapatoo is an edible tuber growing in mud of the northern
lakes, above which it lifts arrow-shaped leaves and curious
waxy white spikes. The history of the Northwest gives the
wapatoo root as the principal food, during a terrible winter
on the Oregon coast, of those wanderers who followed an-
other man's dream of empire (and an Indian girl) to the
sea. Indian pipe (ghost plant) has weird flowers that de-
velop in warm midsummer after rains. When most plants
have done blooming, the flowers of this one rise from the
forest floor, living on decaying vegetable matter and look-
ing ghostly white. As the seeds mature, the flowers turn
upward and blacken. The plant gets its name from the
FLORA 113
way the petals of the long blossoms shutter so closely to-
gether as to seem like layers on a small cylinder and in
appearance quite like the bowl of a pipe.
Of flowers of hill and mountainside a considerable
number deserve mention. Some say the fireweed was
named because it springs up quickly in burnt-over areas,
and some because a patch of it sets a hillside aflame. It
grows three to six feet in height, and is often found with
the paintbrush, a bushy blossom that looks as if it had
been washed in crimson. Often in company with them
is the goldenrod, which, Muir declared, is enough to cure
unbehef and spiritual aches ; but on dry farms in south-
ern Idaho it is an unmitigated pest. It thrives luxuriantly
in earth so parched that grain withers, and after an un-
usually arid summer turns many a hillside golden. Va-
rieties of lupine are found with these tenants, each a
bunched plant topped with blue clusters that fill the rain-
less air with fragrance ; but these, like the goldenrod, are
sometimes an ineradicable pest. The golden cinquefoil,
with petals resembling in form but not in substance those
of the wild strawberry, is often found in sagebrush areas,
where it looks almost as much out of place as the lilies ;
but the harebell prefers shady hillsides, especially in
aspen groves. Drooping in frail melancholy loveliness on
its slender stalk, it is often hidden by grass and fern or
is rendered inconspicuous by its showier neighbors.
Ranging far and wide are the lilylike fairy bells, a
flower with berries of golden or orange that give to the
plant its f olkname of gold-drops. It bears its flowers singly
or in clusters of two or three, and these are bell-shaped and
white and sometimes quite hidden under broad leaves.
It blooms in April and May. The Oregon grape is not a
grape but a barberry, though jelly made from its fruit
has the flavor of grape. It has evergreen leaves, used
much in decoration; numerous yellow flowers that bloom
from April into May ; and clusters of dark blue fruit. Its
root has medicinal value and in the Northwest is dug
and shipped by the ton. This barberry, the State flower
114 IDAHO
of Oregon, grows in Idaho in woodlands or on rocky low
mountainsides or even under high cool banks where the
sun seldom shines. First found in Siberia, but common
along the American coast line from Alaska to California,
Siberian miner's lettuce got its name because it is some-
times used in salads. Its flowers grow on long pedicels
and are white or pink and bloom from March to June in
open woods. It also grows luxuriantly along the shaded
banks of streams. The buckbrush (sticky laurel), really
a shrub, grows on wooded hillsides, sometimes in thickets
that stretch for miles. It has gorgeous white blossoms
that hang with the profusion of lilacs. In some places it
is called wild lilac, in some, chaparral, and either name
is more appropriate than the one by which it is usually
called in Idaho. Slender shooting star (bird bill) is wide-
ly distributed in Idaho. It is a flower of bizarre delicacy,
so frail in appearance that it is a wonder how it survives
in the situations it chooses. It has leafless threadlike
stems that support rose-pink flowers shaped much like a
bird's bill, with downsweeping petals that leave the cen-
ter. The flower is commonly known as shooting star.
Buff pussytoes (rush everlasting: either name is silly),
a member of the aster family, has a great many varie-
ties. In most of the species the plant has a long slender
shoot that spreads in leafy runners over the earth to
form dense foliage. The compound flower heads bloom
upright and are supposed to suggest pussy toes in their
soft lobed form. Another beautiful flower, unimagina-
tively named, is the pearly (or pearl) everlasting. It has
clusters of small white flowers with large yellow centers,
long and narrow and lazily tapering leaves, and the plant
contour of the aster family to which it belongs. The
flowers are often gathered and dyed to use as Christmas
wreaths. Found chiefly in Owyhee County, the mountain
lily is a pure white and very fragrant flower that blooms
in early spring.
It belongs to more arid regions, as do several others of
exceptional loveliness. The desert lily, most beautiful of
FLORA 115
all the Mariposas, is so close in appearance to the Eastern
lily as to deceive all but trained observers. But it forms an
exquisite picture and may be found blooming in the most
arid places, its peacock hues sometimes hiding under the
dry hot sage. If there is enough rainfall it will put forth
from ten to twenty blooms, each expanding in twos and
threes. There are few more incongruous sights than a
garden of these incomparable flowers right in the bleakest
wastes of sagebrush country where nobody would expect
to find anything but the horned lizard and the coyote. Some
think that the loveliest of the Mariposa tulips is the sego
lily, which, too, is found on dry hillsides as well as in
meadows. It blooms in May and June; and on its stalk a
foot and a half high it looks in a wind like a gorgeous white
butterfly held by its feet. This is the State flower of Utah
and was one of the most welcome sights to greet the Mor-
mons when they emerged, almost a century ago, into the
arid desolation of Salt Lake Valley. But the Mormons
did more than to look at it and marvel. Sego (seego) is a
Shoshoni name for food ; and the edible bulb of this flower
the Mormons ate and found good. The graceful sego lily
has petals softly fuzzed toward the center, and some have
given to it the odious name of cat's ear or pussy ear. The
violet-shaded tripetaled desert lily has the light poised
grace of three butterflies resting with closed wings. The
purple hly grows on dry hillsides in Owyhee County and
on the lower reaches of mountains in the center of the
State. The flowers of this fritillaria are of dark purple
mottled with yellowish green and are very slender on
comparatively leafless stems.
Another desert dweller, the stonecrop, gets its unlovely
name from its habit of growing among rocks in tiny
pockets of soil. Its leaves in bushy rosettes and its
flowers in yellow clusters are striking in May against
their background of dry earth and gray stone. Called
variously soap grass, squaw grass, and elk grass, the gor-
geous plant which is more commonly known as bear grass
is a thorough rebuke to the unimaginativeness of the
116 IDAHO
human mind. The foliage itself is remarkable, growing in
dense hummocks; and when the plant sets up its huge
creamy plumes, it is, from June until August, one of the
most unusual visions in semiarid places. This tall flower
has received its unlovely names because bears eat its
roots, because some persons have used its roots for soap,
because squaws used the plant for basketry, and because
elk eat its leafage. It is abundant along the Lolo Trail
where it was first discovered by Lewis and Clark.
Old maid's hair, owl-clover, and balsamroot are three
others unfelicitously named. The first, also called prairie
smoke, is typical of the great prairie regions of the United
States. Its red, budlike flowers sprout in groups from a
crimson stalk, and in late summer the silky plumed heads
shimmer like pale purple mist in the distance. Owl-clover,
a member of the figwort and not of the clover family, is also
widely distributed. It lifts in great patches of pink color
among the grasses, and though different from the paint-
brush in its manner of growth, like the paintbrush it
blooms in bracts which flower at the tops of long wiry
stems. The lean spidery foliage streams upward close to
the stems, giving to the latter the appearance of being
sheathed. Balsamroot grows on dry hillsides and in Idaho
is abundant on the Snake River plains. The large leaves,
blue green on top and white underneath, have the shape of
arrowheads; and flaunting above them are the vivid
yellow flowers. The roots were eaten by Indians, as well
as by early Mormons, and in Utah the plant is sometimes
called Mormon biscuit. One of the commonest of the cacti,
the prickly pear is found on arid slopes, its large multi-
petaled flowers of light sulphur yellow rising above the
green shining discs of the plant. In late afternoon sun the
flowers fade to salmon. The stamens, which may be either
yellow or red, are so sensitive that when a bee settles on
them they curl inward and downward, at once enclosing
the insect. The plants with red stamens are by far the
most striking.
VI
FAUNA
VI
FAUNA^
THE WILD life of Idaho, like that of any Western State,
is so various that only the more important or inter-
esting or destructive species can be covered here, and
these only briefly. In its high mountains, and in less de-
gree in its semiarid regions, Idaho has thousands of wild
animals, both herbivorous and predatory ; in its marshes
and along its innumerable streams it has hundreds of
thousands of small animals and wild fowl ; and in areas
affected by such creatures it has many varieties of reptile
and amphibian. According to the State Game Department,
those beasts and birds which are italicized ought to be
exterminated if Idaho is to realize its possibilities as a
hunting and fishing playground.
For some persons who have studied him, the grizzly is
the most splendid of all the wild animals of earth. A
large beast of prodigious strength, this bear sometimes
weighs a thousand pounds but in Idaho probably averages
about six hundred. The number of grizzlies in the world
is not large, because few animals are so remorselessly
tracked to their death ; and in Idaho, when signs of one
are discovered, word usually goes forth to some big game
hunter who at once comes in to hunt the big shy fellow
to his death. Though supposed by some to be a menace
to deer and elk and sheep, the best authority declares that
he is a solitary baron who lives almost entirely on mice
1 Fish and wild game fowl will be found in Chapter VTI.
120 IDAHO
and rats and rabbits and wild fruits. This pilgrim of
remote places, long a subject of romantic legend, would,
if allowed to, go his calm and powerful way alone ; for he
is of gentle rather than ferocious nature and will often
sit for a long while to meditate on the beaver or the water
ouzels at play.
The black (or brown) bear, too, nearly always minds
his own business. A lazy and shiftless fellow, he runs
to quiet blinking indolence and fat. When fleeing from
danger he is almost as noiseless as a rolling ball of cotton,
but when gorging on huckleberries he is likely to make a
great racket. Sometimes, for change of diet, he will lie
on a log overreaching a stream and drop his paw for an
unwary salmon or trout. The grizzly will spend time and
ingenuity in fashioning a winter home to suit his taste,
but the black bear is content to use any cave or hole he
can find. He will even crawl under the stumpage of an
overthrown tree and allow the snow to build a roof over
him. This animal seems to be an enemy of small cattle
and sheep, as well, possibly, of smaller wild game, and in
parts of the country a bounty is laid on his head. Fairly
common in Idaho, he ranges over practically all of the
mountainous terrain and is quite frequently seen.
Of a different sort is the cougar (American panther,
mountain lion, and in South America the puma). This
huge cat is an implacable enemy of wild game, especially
of deer and elk, and in stalking its prey is a beast of
amazing patience. Often it will lie in wait for twenty-
four hours or longer, crouched and motionless, until the
victim comes within forty or fifty feet. The cougar can
leap a distance of forty feet, and for a short sprint is
said to be the fastest animal alive. After leaping to a
deer it drives talons into the flanks and fangs into the
neck and with one powerful effort twists the head back
and breaks the spine. How many deer one cougar will kill
annually, nobody knows, but fifty-two, or one a week, is
a safe guess. Largest of the cats, and sometimes nine feet
from tip to tip, the cougar is at home in the jungles of
Bear up a tree
.1
/;.
/■
Come on down!
o
FAUNA 121
Panama or ten thousand feet above the sea. It is said to
be able to vanquish the black bear in a struggle, to drive
the jaguar out of its territory, and to slay a full-grown
elk. Possibly it has never, except when wounded or
trapped, attacked a human being. It is a beautiful ani-
mal, lithe and clean and intelligent. About forty are killed
annually in Idaho.
And the timber wolf and the bobcat should go with it.
The first, often weighing a hundred and fifty pounds, is
almost the same as the dreaded beast of European folk-
lore. Formerly on the Western plains in great numbers,
it has been driven into mountains where it is not often
seen, and members of the United States Biological Sur-
vey declare that no wolves remain in Idaho. At this state-
ment, old-timers, and especially in Owyhee County, look
down their noses. There are very few, however, and these
few are infrequently seen. One of the most difficult of all
animals to trap, the wolf has developed a most uncanny
knowledge of trappers and their ways and will step warily
aside from even the most cunning set. It has ferocious
courage, but its cousin the coyote is a skulking wretch
that fights, like most human beings, only when he has to.
The coyote is one of the commonest of wild animals in
Idaho, and thousands are trapped annually. An old-timer
in Owyhee County who has taken as many as 724 in a
single season now prefers to tie a piece of chain to the
handle of a broom and to overtake them on a fast horse
in snow a foot deep and to clout them on their skulls.
Trappers who have devoted years to these noiseless noc-
turnal wanderers tell amazing stories of the coyote's
cunning.
The bobcat or lynx (much the same animal, though
the former is stockier and less savage) is one of the
craftiest of hunters. It is about three feet long and may
weigh twenty-five pounds. A wide ranger in the deep
forests and along river bottoms, it feeds chiefly on mice
and rabbits, though it can, when it has a mind to, kill the
fox and the deer. In Arkansas it is said to have been so
122 IDAHO
vicious an enemy of hogs that hog raising in certain parts
of the State has been abandoned ; and in Idaho it is with
the cougar the worst enemy of cattle and sheep. It is a
credulous simpleton that never harms a human being,
and it is valuable in destroying rodents, but sportsmen de-
clare it has too much relish for wild game to be tolerated.
The moose (the name is Indian for twig-eater) is said
by some to be lord of the American forests. The great
range belt of this animal is, of course, through Canada
and Alaska, but many are still found in the States, and
quite a number in Idaho. It is a large beast that may
stand, if a bull, almost seven feet to the top of his shoul-
ders, and ten feet to the top of his antlers, and may
weigh fourteen hundred pounds, though bulls of this size
are rare. His antlers are two broad, curved slabs of bone
with as many as twenty prongs on the two of them. A
bold and terrible warrior, he will attack anything when
provoked, using as weapons his antlers and sharp fore-
feet. He is said to have slain full-grown bears by driving
the beasts through with one blow of his foreleg. Bulls
engage one another, too, in the mating season and some-
times get their antlers inextricably locked and both
perish. The moose likes to frequent lakes and take a cool
bath daily and make great noise among the lily pads ; and
because its neck is so short and its height so great, it has
to seek these or other propitious places to feed.
The elk (wapiti) is much commoner in Idaho than the
moose, and thousands of them range in the high moun-
tains. The name elk was given by early Virginia colonists,
who called the beast an olke. Smaller than the moose, a
bull elk may weigh a thousand pounds, but six hundred
is an average. This animal, too, is a fearless warrior
when in mating season he goes bugling through the for-
ests, and like the bull moose, he often gets his horns in-
terlocked and dies a prisoner of his own fury. The elk's
chief enemies besides man and the cougar are the millions
of insects that assail him, the most deadly of the latter
being the deer tick (not yet a menace in Idaho) , which
FAUNA 123
often SO weakens an animal by bloodsucking that it dies
in late winter of starvation. Thirty years ago elk ranged
in great numbers, but they were slain by thousands by
greedy hunters who were after the two canine teeth,
which were marketable and are still.
In Idaho there are about twenty thousand elk and
about five times as many deer. These, about evenly di-
vided between blacktail and whitetail, range over all
the forests of the State, with the former more abundant
in the south and the latter in the north. During summer
months many of them leave the mountains for lowlands
and not uncommonly pasture in wheat fields, leaping the
tallest fences with ease. Like other wild herbivorous
mammals, the deer is a creature of amazing vitality and
may run for a hundred yards after being shot through
the heart. Like the elk, it is cunning when pursued and
will enter a river and wade up or down it and perhaps
swim across and back and again enter the mountains.
In the rutting season the stag is another fierce warrior,
but after his antlers fall he is shy and reticent and goes
off by himself to brood and wait for another set of horns.
The antelope (pronghorn or prongbuck) is more grace-
ful than even the deer. The two herds in Idaho, one in the
Pahsimeroi Valley and the other in Owyhee County, are
said to be the largest in the world. Of all animals in
North America, the antelope is said to be the swiftest;
and so assured of its immunity to capture is this other-
wise defenseless creature that it will often remain to gaze
at interlopers when elk or deer would be crashing madly
through the timber. It has a curious and most enviable
sign of danger : when alarmed it declares its perturbation
in a patch of white hair on its rump that stands straight
up and in bright sunlight shines hke a mirror. But its
one invincible protection is speed. Adults are said to have
outdistanced automobiles going forty miles an hour ; and
fawns only three weeks old can leave coyotes far behind.
The antelope buck fights when in love, too, but less fierce-
ly and less fatally than the bulls and stags. Its courtship
124 IDAHO
tournament takes the form of massed attack by young
males on an old and weary leader.
Ranging much higher than moose, elk, and deer are
the mountain goats and sheep. These alpine climbers pre-
fer the windswept altitudes lying between the timber line
and the perpetual snows; and in those high and remote
places they have few enemies but themselves. The males
of these cliff dwellers also fight savagely during mating
season, sometimes engaging in combat on narrow ledges
from which the more unfortunate one is hurled to his
death on the shelves below. It takes quite a fall, however,
to kill one of these rugged and incredibly nimble crea-
tures. When pursued they think little of leaping off preci-
pices twenty feet in height, and have been known to drop
twenty-five feet and to sprint off unharmed. How many
wild goats and sheep there are in Idaho it is difficult to
learn, but there is a fairly large number and the number
is increasing.
Smaller Animals: On the streams are several animals
of unusual value and interest. The beaver, largest of the
rodents, and formerly so persistently trapped that it is now
protected in most States, is an engineer and builder of
dams, a mason, and a feller of trees with no equal except
man. Once a beaver dam is placed, it is likely to resist flood
and weather for an indefinite time, even though it may
be a hundred feet in width and four in height. The
beaver is a powerful animal for his pounds and will tow
against a strong current and without apparent effort
a log weighing a hundred pounds; or two working to-
gether will maneuver large boulders into place. When
felling a tree he sits on his broad flat tail or thrusts it
out behind him as a prop, grasps the trunk with his fore-
paws, and then bites above and below and pries the chips
out with strong teeth. These teeth, if unused, grow so
large that they become intractable and cause the animal to
starve to death : they have to be whetted constantly and
kept worn down. The beaver's long ladle of a tail has
many uses: as a rudder when swimming, as a chair to
FAUNA 125
sit on, as a trowel in plastering, and as a mortar board on
which to carry mud. He uses his paws with the agility
of a monkey and tunnels, burrows, plasters, or grasps
sticks. He lives on the inner bark of deciduous or broad-
leaved trees, preferring aspen, cottonwood, and willow,
and always stores for winter use much more than he can
ever eat. Nothing about him is more remarkable than
his persistence. A person can tear out a section of dam
every morning for week after week; he can set fire to it
and burn it to the water and mud ; he can dynamite it and
blow it over a half acre ; he can even hang a lighted lan-
tern two feet above the dam — but by daylight of the next
day the dam will be built again.
Like the beaver in appearance, save for the tail,
though much smaller, is the muskrat. This interesting
creature, more closely related to mice than to rats, is
aquatic like the beaver and lives in burrows with a sub-
water tunneled entrance, and feeds chiefly on bark and
roots. Unusual is his fastidious cleanliness : after choos-
ing a root he will find a secluded spot and scrupulously
scrub his food before eating. His pelt, with long overhairs
and dense underfur, is practically waterproof. Musquash
is his Indian name. Though known to venture far from
water, the muskrat is for the most part a solemnly busy
fellow who sticks to his home and stupidly tunnels into
dams and releases ponds as much to his regret as to the
farmer's. For in Idaho this creature is more trouble than
he is worth. He breeds four or five times a year in litters
of six or more and raises Cain with many small irriga-
tion projects.
A much greater rascal is the otter, which in legend is
said to be able to kill a deer, and which in water can easily
capture the fastest fish that swims. When not murdering,
this bloodthirsty creature likes to build slippery slides on
clay banks and spend hours tobogganing into the water,
climbing out and sliding down as if he had nothing else
in the world to do. Though among aquatic animals, he
travels far and swiftly, ranging up and down rivers in
126 IDAHO
search of prey. The mink, also an enemy of fish, possibly
in Idaho does more good than harm. He is an amazingly
quick and relentless killer. More agile on land than the
otter, the mink can climb trees with the ease of a tim-
ber squirrel or travel a long reach of shoreland in a night.
He eats rats, mice, and squirrels, but is also fond of eggs
of birds and waterfowl. If unable to obtain any of these,
he will eat salamanders and frogs and snakes.
The fisher, largest and deadliest member of the weasel
clan, and the only animal on earth that knows how to
slay a porcupine without injury to himself, probably no
longer exists in Idaho. But the weasel is common. If this
creature were as large as a cougar, nobody would dare to
venture out-of-doors, because he is second to none, includ-
ing the badger, in courage, and is possibly the most blood-
thirsty villain on earth. And except in the matter of
traps he is as crafty as a fox. Weasels invade many
a hencoop and leave the hens paralyzed with fright with
a part of their number slain ; and when cornered they will
attack any animal and even fly into the face of a human
being, though they are only a little larger than a squirrel.
They render some service by preying on mice and rats and
lizards and insects, but they also prey on songbirds, suck-
ing the blood of each and demanding that the blood be
fresh. And when they have a chance they always slay
from ten to a hundred times as much as they need. The
fur of this pest is, of course, the commercially valuable
ermine.
Like the weasel, the badger has more courage than he
knows what to do with and will attack anything that an-
noys him. A chunky, close-to-the-earth fellow, he is a
tenant of prairies, and here, usually in pursuit of squir-
rels, he digs with astonishing rapidity, disappearing from
sight in less than a minute and going as deep as neces-
sary for his prey. There are few more dramatic spec-
tacles than a fight between two males. They engage in
combat with such deadly fury that a human being can
approach and kick them and they will remain unaware of
•j|4»L
Rocky Mountain sheep: beginning of a battle
Elk: finish of a fight
FAUNA 127
or wholly indifferent to his presence; and now and then
they get their jaws locked in a death grip and die together.
A badger is a creature of such enormous vitality that often
one shot through with a rifle and carried all day behind
a saddle will crawl off when thrown to the earth.
Quite unlike him is the skunk, a denizen of wooded
areas and strangest member of the weasel family. It has a
defense so effective that safety from its enemies has
allowed it to grow slothful and fat. A gaudy creature in
appearance, its colors are intended not to disguise it but
to warn its enemies of its presence. The skunk is very
common in Idaho, and aside from the worth of its pelt it
is valuable in its feeding on grasshoppers and crickets.
It is also fond of the juicy larvae of bumblebees and
yellow jackets and will almost demolish a colony in one
visit; and upon approaching an apiary cautiously and
scratching on the hive to invite the bees outside, it will,
indifferent to fury and stings, eat as many as it can pick
out of its fur and then proceed to the larvae inside. It
will also eat lizards and earthworms, gophers and mice
and rats.
The skunk may be valuable, but the porcupine, which
inhabits the same areas, is, according to Forest Service of-
ficials, an unmitigated nuisance. Instead of eating injuri-
ous insects and rodents and so placing itself in the esteem
of man, this creature, safe under its bristling armor, feeds
on succulent plants and on the bark and cambium of
trees, especially the yellow pine and Douglas fir. Many
small seedlings are completely devoured, and older trees
are girdled and killed; and in some areas, heavily in-
fested, not a single tree has been left undamaged. To
make matters worse, this dull-witted creature is nomadic
and wanders far and aimlessly, sometimes stupidly reach-
ing high altitudes where there is no food at all. It lives
in great rocky dens when not prowling, and because it has
no enemies except the fisher (which is rare) it breeds
unmolested.
The gopher (salamander, camas rat) has, unlike the
128 IDAHO
porcupine, a great many enemies, but it multiplies rapidly
in its burrows and devastates whole areas with its tireless
industry. Considerably larger than the field mouse, and
in appearance and habits much like its cousins, the mole
and shrew and vole (meadow mouse), it lives chiefly
underground and devotes most of its time to eating. It
is estimated that a mole will eat fifty pounds of earth-
worms in a year and will starve to death if denied food
for forty-eight hours. The gopher also eats worms, but
it throws up huge mounds in alfalfa fields; destroys
dams and dikes with its tunneling; and lays countless
fields open to erosion and flood. The shrew is the smallest
of all flesh eaters and is a flerce mouselike little fellow
that lives along streams and lakes and preys on insects
and fish. Much commoner in Idaho is the gray ground
squirrel. Though friendly and cheerful, it has enormous
relish for succulent herbage including wheat and alfalfa,
and in every year thousands of them are poisoned or shot.
This is a prairie animal, but the red squirrel (often called
pine or timber squirrel) lives in the forests. It is a hand-
some and impudent fellow who noisily resents intrusion
but is easily tamed and becomes the pet of men in the
lonely forest lookouts. Just as pertly incredulous, and
quite as favored in the hearts of those who know and
love its ways, is the chipmunk.
More interesting than the gopher or mole because
more intelligent is the pack rat (trade rat, cave rat, wood
rat, bush rat, drummer rat, and mound builder). It is
an erratic nocturnal prowler that always looks astonished
and guilty and has reason to because it is everlastingly
up to mischief. Hating famine as much as fire, it lays
in huge stores not only of food but of everything it can
carry, including spectacles and clothes and all sorts of
glittering gadgets. In New Mexico eight carloads of nuts
were once recovered from pack-rat storehouses. This
busy pest is sought by nearly every predaceous bird and
beast in its region because of its tender flesh. Because
of its foul odor and mousey appearance it is not held
FAUNA 129
in esteem in Idaho as a table delicacy, but in parts of the
world, as in Mexico, the flesh of the pack rat is regarded
in quality as second to none. Upon entering a house it
will walk about, thumping the walls and ceiling with its
right hind foot as if determined to waken every sleeping
thing; and on being discovered it offers an astonishing
mien of stupidity and cunning, of apology and insolence.
Without even a small part of the pack rat's intelli-
gence is the snowshoe rabbit, whose only defenses are
fecundity and speed. There are several species of rabbit
in Idaho, all of them looking equally haunted, and all of
them forever in flight from their enemies, not the least
of which are the confusing headlights of automobiles.
There are thousands of them, and it is remarkable that
there should be because of all creatures of mountain and
desert none is so remorselessly sought. Coyotes and
wolves and weasels overtake them; horned owls and
hawks pick them up with ease ; reptiles creep up to them
while they are dozing ; and bot, warble, and fluke, fly and
louse and tick and tapeworm are all among their deadly
enemies. These creatures with their big terrified eyes
and wildly beating hearts are one of the commonest ani-
mals in the West, even though, in addition to their nat-
ural enemies, human beings drive them by thousands into
pens and club them to death.
The rockchuck (often mistakenly called woodchuck)
favors as its home piles of slide-rock near succulent mead-
ows. All three species of marmot are found in Idaho, and
this is the only State in which all three are found. The
hoary keeps to the highest peaks ; the brown (woodchuck
is the common name) prefers deep forests, and is often
called the thickwood badger; and the yellow (rockchuck)
chooses the rocky flanks. The woodchuck is the most
widely distributed of all animals its size, but is much less
frequently seen in Idaho than the rockchuck, members
of whose huge clans are often run over by cars. During
the day a sentinel is placed on a lookout, and at any sign
of invasion it gives a cry of warning that can be heard
130 IDAHO
for a mile. Its chief enemy is the eagle and coyote — and
man, for more and more commonly the rockchuck dev-
astates cultivated fields. It shares its castle v^ith others
vi^ho are too lazy to establish one of their own : with the
rockchip, for instance, a potbellied little elfin that sits
humbly at the feast and is content to eat what the lord
of the manor does not want. It is declared, but some deny,
that the marmot is the only wild animal that carries in
all its stages the deadly tick of spotted fever.
Reptiles: In comparison with Southeastern or South-
western States Idaho is free of reptiles, and yet it is said
that rattlesnakes are so numerous in parts of Idaho County
that a recent expedition into the area had to be recalled.
Of these, there are the Pacific and the prairie: the two
are almost indistinguishable, though the former is
smaller and climbs higher. Both are dangerous and quick
to strike. The prairie, rarely exceeding six feet in length,
is rumored to put more energy into a fight than any other
reptile in North America. Legend, however, exaggerates
the ferocity and courage of snakes, and of this one it can
be said that unless stepped on or cornered it will get out
of sight as quickly as it can. The rubber boa (silver
snake, worm snake, or two-headed snake because both
ends are blunted) is a true boa and well named, for rub-
ber is quite exactly what it looks like. It is a glistening
and polished and indolent fellow with a gray back and an
immaculate yellow belly. In disposition it is like the Old
World sand boa; in eating it constricts its prey in the
manner of its kind. This snake is shy and is rarely seen.
The Pacific bull or gopher snake is a handsome viper of
yellowish brown and splotched black, and is of moderate
size. In prairies and mountains it grows larger than on
the coast and may achieve a length of four and a half
feet. When disturbed it hisses furiously and shakes its
tail and tries to look as formidable as any bull snake
should, but it is only eager to get out of sight. This one,
too, is uncommon in Idaho. The gopher or indigo snake
preys, as its name declares, chiefly on gophers and mice,
FAUNA 131
and is of considerable value. Blue-black in color, it has
the polish of a new gun barrel and is a prismatic marvel
as it moves swiftly through shadow and sunlight. Much
commoner in Idaho and frequenting the same areas is
the striped racer, a very slender dark brown or black
reptile with numerous yellow lines on its sides. It is fast,
either in vaulting bushes or moving over ground. The
yelloiv -bellied racer (blue or green racer) is olive green
with a yellow belly, and sometimes reaches a length of
four and a half feet. It lives among bushes and climbs
them with ease in search of bird nests. As with other
racers, folklore invests it with remarkable boldness, but
the most notable thing about all of these sleek fellows
is the speed with which they flee from anything larger
than themselves. Ground snakes in Idaho are rare, but
ivater snakes of several varieties are common and are
among the chief enemies of fish. One of these snakes will
eat as many as fifty rainbow fingerlings at a meal.
Idaho seems to have no skinks, but there are several
kinds of swift. The sagebrush swift is small but bril-
liantly colored and lives on prairies or on mountains to
an altitude of nine thousand feet. It is much more un-
common than the western, which prefers arid regions
and makes frantic haste when discovered. The stansbury
is larger, attaining a length of six inches. All the swifts
are terrestrial lizards of remarkable agility that live in
subarid zones and spend their lives chasing insects. The
collared lizard is one of Idaho's gaudiest natives : its chief
color may be yellow or pale gray or bright green, lavishly
decorated with white or yellow dots. Behind its green
head and the orange of its throat is a brilliant collar of
two jet-black bands which are the margins upon a white
or yellow necklace. Its legs may be dotted red. It is rare,
and when found is usually sunning itself on a stone. Simi-
lar in habits and fairly common is the leopard lizard, also
flamboyant, though his color harmony is of red and
brown. This cannibal, like the other, rises to his hind
legs when chasing prey. Of the horned lizard (often
132 IDAHO
called the horned toad) there are at least two species.
These flattened-out creatures with their conical horns and
formidable spines look much more dangerous than they
are and frighten by appearance rather than by power.
They live in areas of lava and seem happy only when the
heat is intolerable. When captured they feign death; or
they may puff up prodigiously ; or they may seem to void
all their organs and be only lidless eyes and horned skin.
Some of the horned lizards can, Ditmars declares, squirt
blood from their eyes to a distance of three or four feet,
though precisely of what value such a spectacular ma-
neuver is in terrifying their enemies seems not to be
known. Lizards feed on ants and grubs and grasshoppers
and crickets.
Birds: Without birds, authorities declare, humanity
would perish from the earth and its trees would perish
with it. Without swallows, purple martins, swifts, and
nighthawks, not to speak of countless others whose appe-
tites are less gluttonous, the atmosphere would be a fog of
midges and mosquitoes and gnats. It would be a dark and
trembling mass of larger insects without kingbirds, fly-
catchers, phoebes, and peewees. Trees would wither from
larvae and plant lice if it were not for the warblers and
vireos that search every trunk and leaf ; for thrushes and
orioles and catbirds and wrens that devour caterpillars
and beetles and locusts and spiders ; for woodpeckers that
bore for the beetles. The earth would be overrun with
moths if it were not for the red-eyed vireo and birds like
it. In meadows and on hillsides human beings would wade
ankle-deep in chinch bugs and cutworms and wireworms
and beetles and locusts if it were not for robins and spar-
rows and larks. The land would be taken by weeds if it
were not for the finches and doves, any one of which will
eat almost a thousand weed seeds for breakfast alone.
We'd need an army of pied pipers if hawks and owls were
to develop sudden distaste for mice and rats. When, not
long ago, agriculturists of Hungary persuaded a deluded
people to exterminate the sparrow, the country was over-
FAUNA 133
run with insects. In the island of Bourbon the martin
was destroyed, and grasshoppers took possession of the
land. And Utahans still remember when the Salt Lake
Valley was saved by gulls. Idaho was once a refuge where
birds were numbered in millions, but cat fanciers, tiring of
too many pets, now take the beasts on fishing trips and turn
them loose. The United States Biological Survey says the
common cat, gone wild, is one of the three most destructive
animals in Idaho. A domestic cat goes wild in a few
weeks, and many parts of the State, once ringing with
birdsong, are now in the possession of English sparrows
and cats. But the State is still so rich in bird life that a
few years ago the Cleveland Museum of Natural History
sent an expedition here to discover how many varieties
there were. Authorities estimate that there are fifty
million cats in the United States that kill hundreds of
millions of birds annually, but parts of Idaho, such as
the Primitive Area, are still huge bird sanctuaries.
The bald eagle, emblem of a great Nation, has been
divested of much of its legendary glory and represented
for the ineffectual carrion eater that it is. Though a huge
handsome fellow with in some respects the most impres-
sive majesty of all things that fly, it is not a fierce lonely
hermit with the aloofness of distance and altitudes. On
the contrary it is an unconscionable and lazy rascal that
lives chiefly by stratagem and theft. When sitting on a
cliff he looks olympian, but in plain truth is a piratical
parasite that will even eat the carrion which the vultures
disgorge. And if, driven to hunt for himself, he goes
about seeking prey, he prefers, some authorities declare,
the wounded birds that have gone into hiding to die. Or
he may skulk around to learn if the osprey has not left
some of its fish, or he may descend to eat with the ravens
and crows. The 2var eagle, on the other hand, is a fierce
creature that rarely touches food that it has not slain. It
likes lonely inaccessible places, from which it goes on
marauding expeditions to seek the young of mountain
goat or sheep, and like the bald eagle, it mates for life. A
134 IDAHO
huge folklore has been built around the amorous single-
mindedness of this aerial wayfarer. It is enough to know
that where the war eagle has been exterminated, mountain
sheep and goats rapidly increase.
The turkey vulture or buzzard has a wing spread of
six feet. It is a rather ornate scavenger with its black
and brown plumage, its naked crimson head, its white
beak, and its flesh-colored feet. Soaring high with im-
perceptible movement of its wings, falling or rising in
great effortless arcs, or sailing round and round, it seems
to float rather than fly, and in grace and majesty of
flight is the master of all birds. It has been suggested
that, like the wood ibis, this lord of the air soars inces-
santly in an effort to digest its gorge. A serene philoso-
pher that wars with nothing, it eats what most birds
scorn and has been led by its peaceable nature to have
distaste for fresh meat. But of carrion it is said to eat
so gluttonously as to be unable to leave the ground;
whereupon, philosopher still, it waits calmly until di-
gestion has diminished its weight. If disturbed while
feeding it will blow hisses through its nostrils or grunt
or sometimes resort to the mean trick of disgorging its
stomach upon the intruder. Its nest is so foul of smell
that it has rarely been studied.
Of hawks, Idaho has too few of the right and too
many of the wrong kind. To the latter belong most of
the falcons. Swifter than the eagle, swiftest, indeed, of
all birds that kill, is the falcon, that bird which men have
observed for ages with envious interest, noting the grace-
ful certainty with which it achieves what it undertakes.
No bird that flies is more daring than the peregrine. This
marauder follows game birds in their flight north or south
and destroys them in vast numbers, especially ducks,
which it kills with spectacular deftness. Rising from the
frantic bird, it folds its wings and drops, striking with
powerful talons ; and then swoops to catch the dying bird
in mid-air. Often pigeons will rise swiftly in an attempt
to elude the peregrine, and both hunter and hunted will
FAUNA 135
vanish beyond human sight. The smallest of falcons, the
sparrow hawk, never eats anything bigger than a grass-
hopper and is a most valuable bird.
The marsh or mouse hawk is less spirited in flight
than some of his kind and is content to skim the earth
for small mammals and frogs. But in mating time he
exerts himself and has some tricks of his own. Said to
mate for life, he goes about the matter with most im-
pressive earnestness and will fall part way down the sky,
turning somersaults in his descent; or, failing in this,
will pursue a long course parallel with the earth, somer-
saulting again and screeching with fervor. Of a different
sort is the sharp-shinned haivk, a fierce little edition of
the Cooper : this fellow's speed and audacity and appetite
are the terror of songbirds. When birds are seen in des-
perate flight from a twisting and gyrating and relentless
predator, most likely this is the hawk in pursuit. His
large cousin. Cooper's haivk, lives chiefly on small game
birds and is one of the most villainous rascals in the air.
A still larger cousin is the goshaivk, or blue hen or par-
tridge hawk, one of the most destructive creatures on
wings. Though it eats rodents, it prefers grouse and
quail and ducks, and is so greedy that it always slays
more than it eats. It has been known to kill as many as
five grouse for one meal. It is very common in Idaho.
Another useless pest is the osprey, which feeds on fish.
Dropping like a plummet, this hawk strikes the water and
disappears, and the sound of its vanishing can be heard
for half a mile. In sharp contrast with this scoundrel is
a hawk which many Idahoans unwisely kill. This, the
western redtail, is a large serene bird that lives almost en-
tirely on mice and squirrels. The pigeon haivk, or Ameri-
can merlin, lives chiefly on birds.
Of owls in Idaho, the great horned is the largest ex-
cept one, and the deadliest. It is two feet in length and
has tufted ears and yellow eyes. Perhaps not even the
peregrine falcon is a more remorseless enemy of ducks
and geese and game fowl, and especially inasmuch as the
136 IDAHO
horned owl eats only the brains. Said by some to have
the most bloodcurdling scream of all wild things, and
called by others melodramatically, the tiger of the air, this
voracious fellow is afraid of nothing and will even attack
a skunk. So bold is it that stories are told of duck hunt-
ers who, sitting quietly in a bog, have been swooped
down upon by this creature and almost knocked out. It
does not, of course, attack human beings, but does some-
times mistake their head or their hat for an animal of
smaller size. The snowy owl is a far northern bird that
sometimes comes to Idaho and adjacent States to engage
in a meditative butchery of crows. For some unknown
reason crows regard this white visitor from arctic regions
as an enemy and attack it in great numbers ; and the owl
quietly awaits the more indiscreet birds and strikes and
drops their dead bodies one by one. The snowy owl is
diurnal and preys largely on smaller birds. The great
gray or spectral owl is the largest owl in the world. This
dusky creature, mottled white, is abundant in the far
north, but in Idaho is rarely seen. Quite common, on
the other hand, is the American barn or monkey-faced
owl, which has the face of a toothless old hag with a half-
witted but strangely sly mien. During the day it has a
melancholy face full of grief, but when darkness comes it
gives off its ghastly scream and sallies forth to slay the
shrews and bats, beetles and frogs. Its favorite delicacy
is the head of a mouse, and as a destroyer of pests it has
few equals. The short-eared (marsh, meadow, or prai-
rie) owl is about the same size as the long-eared and
barn. Unlike most owls, it does not live in woods, does
not confine its hunting to the night, and does not nest
above the ground. Some have said this owl will attack
a man : the most it will do if disturbed and lifted from its
roost is to click angrily and try to look much larger than
it is. The flight of all owls is practically noiseless, and
this one is perhaps the most uncannily soundless one of
the tribe. The long-eared (cat) owl is nocturnal ; and in-
asmuch as it prefers to sleep and hunt and give no time
1
FAUNA 137
to home building, it appropriates the nest of crows. It
feeds chiefly on mice. The barred (hoot, wood) owl is the
one that fills the woods with the desolate who-who-too
which many old-timers believe to be an infallible sign of
change in weather. This lazy maurader steals the nest
of hawk or crow and eats more fish and small birds than
mice. The saw-whet (Acadian) owl is much smaller,
measuring only about eight inches, and is a handsome
burnished fellow with a lot of white in his plumage.
Haunting the deepest forests and feeding almost entirely
on mice and insects, it is as lazy as its cousins and chooses
for its home a woodpecker's hole. The screech (mottled,
red, or little horned) owl is a trifle larger than the saw-
whet, and though it appears usually in a dress of red
trimmed in white or buff, it may, for reasons apparently
unknown, change its colors and wear black and gray. It,
too, feeds on insects and mice. By day it sleeps and is
seen only when some mischievous blue jay chases it
blindly through the daylight for other birds to torment.
There are other worthless butchers in Idaho, though
few of them murder with the zestful wantonness of the
peregrine falcon. Of shrikes the State has, unfortunately,
two : the white-rumped and the northern. The latter is a
large bird almost a foot in length with dark wings and
tail and a barred gray breast. Both of these vandals make
havoc of songbirds, often gathering many of them and
impaling them on the thorns of rosebush or haw. Com-
monest of the cormorants in Idaho is the white-crested,
which, inasmuch as it is peculiar to America, is not the
Greek bald raven. Cormorant is a corruption of Latin
meaning marine crow : the creature was so named because
of its voracious appetite. Perhaps its only breeding place
in Idaho is at the head of the American Falls Reservoir,
where attempts are being made to destroy it; for the
cormorant feeds on fish and dives with remarkable speed
and skill. The kingfisher, equally notorious, darts down
to seize unwary victims and then hammer the life out of
them on a rock. It thereupon swallows the fish whole and
138 IDAHO
headfirst and utters a rattling chuckle that some have
fancied to be a laugh of exulation. The kingfisher has
a compact, oily, water-resisting plumage, bluish gray
above, tipped with white on the wings and tail. It is
easily recognized by its long crest. The coiubird, often
called buffalo bird on the plains, and long despised for
its parasitical insolence, lays its eggs in the nests of
other birds, chiefly warblers, vireos, and sparrows.
Though this bird lives chiefly on insects and weed seeds,
its destruction of other nestlings places it definitely
among the enemies of humankind. The same fate ought
to await the sagacious croiv, which preys too much on the
eggs and young of other birds to be tolerated for the in-
sects it eats.
The great blue heron (often called blue or sandhill
crane) is perhaps of all useless birds the one most ar-
dently defended. This tall gawky creature stands in a
river like a grotesque assortment of angles and impales
fish as they come along, gives them a knock or two to
finish them off, and then tosses them into the air and
swallows them headfirst. The black-croivned heron, some-
what flamboyant and less gawky than its cousin, has an
ornament of two or three long graceful white feathers
that reach from its head and across its back like a plume.
The sandhill crane is, unlike the solemn heron, a clown.
When the cranes arrive in the spring they indulge in a
lot of tomfoolery and hop and skip and give off triumph-
ant croaks, and are said in ardor to be equalled only by
Indians in a war dance. This is the male's method of
wooing his tall outlandish bride. These birds prey on
fish, too, and stand for hours in marshes and bogs with
their long necks thrust above the foliage to scan the land-
scape; and if fish are not available they enter fields and
stand in alert wonder on one leg and wait for moles and
mice. When cranes migrate, streaking through the sky
in serpentine fashion, the leader croaks orders that are
repeated from crane to crane down the line. The ivhite
pelican breeds in Idaho in huge colonies and feeds glut-
FAUNA 139
tonously by scooping up fish as it swims along. In Yel-
lowstone Park they fish systematically, according to
Knowlton, and move backward and forward at equal
distances apart.
There are five species of grebe in Idaho. These birds,
closer in evolution than others to the reptiles, are the
most skillful of all swimmers and divers, having many
surprising natatorial feats. Holboell's has a red neck; the
horned gets its name from brown crests; the pied billed
has a black band around its beak; the eared has black
head and neck and earlike tufts of golden brown ; and the
western is easily recognized because it is the largest of
them all. The pied billed, most abundant of all American
species, is the one most frequently seen in Idaho; and
here as elsewhere it is usually known under its folkname
of helldiver. The grebe's nest is a strange affair of weeds
and mud and moss built into a floating structure that
sinks perhaps three feet in depth. Upon this raft the
mother broods a part of the time, though for the most
part the eggs are steamed into life by the heat of the
sun upon the drifting cradle.
The avocet is a small wader with very long legs and a
slender body and a long curved bill. Although the best
swimmer among the waders, it is no less at home on land.
It pays little heed to man unless he becomes a nuisance,
and then nonchalantly flies away, trailing its long legs as
if they were broken. The loon is not half so simple-
minded as legend declares it to be. Largest and hand-
somest of the diving birds, it is less aquatic than the
grebes but is, nevertheless, a remarkable diver, and at
fifty yards is usually quicker than the gun. The common
loon, possibly the only one found in Idaho, is a high and
solitary wanderer that does not often make its presence
known. The American bittern (marsh hen) is another
lone nomad which, though often heard is infrequently
seen. Its love song is quite the sort of dismal lamentation
that one would expect from so solemn a hermit. Now
and then this speckled other-world creature is to be seen
140 IDAHO
standing in a bog in an apparent state of doleful indeci-
sion — and for an hour it may be as motionless as a
stump. But if a person watches long enough he will see
it suddenly snap and gulp as if swallowing all its pent-up
morbid reflections and then bellow horribly as if dying of
nausea and finally go forth with mincing deliberation as
if stepping off distance. But it is only seeking molluscs
with its toes, having first gone through contortions to
rebuke its melancholy and arouse its appetite. The
racket it makes has been variously compared with that
of bellowing cattle, with the gurgle of an old wooden
pump, and with the driving of a peg into a bog; and it
has passed in folklore under such names as thunder-
pumper, stake-driver, butter-bump, and bog-bull. Some
have said that the bittern makes its noise with its bill
in water, but its horrible croaking is only because it
must swallow a great deal of air before giving off its
pump-song.
Of terns or sea-swallows, Idaho has the black, Cas-
pian, and Forster. Terns usually remain close to the sea
or lakes but occasionally venture far inland. Among the
loveliest of birds, they rarely eat fish or anything else
that human beings think birds should leave alone; and
their chief enemy seems to be women who like feathers
in their hats. Both Wilson's and the northern phalarope
are found here. These sea snipes are smaller than a
robin, and the most remarkable thing about them, ac-
cording to one commentator, is the surmise that the phal-
arope has the "most advanced female among the feath-
ered tribes." He means that she has stolen the colors,
does the wooing, and disports herself in various sorts of
club work while the male sits on the eggs. Laying the
eggs is, as a matter of fact, the only necessary chore
which the male does not do. Idaho has the Virginia and
sora rails, though the latter is not bagged here, as in the
rice fields, by tens of thousands. Rails are so timid that
they are said to swoon from fright, or if shot upon water
sometimes sink from terror never to emerge. As thin as
FAUNA 141
a rail is no misnomer: these birds are little more than
noiseless movement and feathers and legs. The American
coot (mud hen) is an aquatic bird that likes to show off
in its diving where water flanks the marshes. It, too, is
a shy bird, though some say that not even a starving
beast would eat its flesh, and others argue that the
coot when fed on wild celery is equal in flavor to the
canvasback. Gregarious in all but the mating season,
the coot then attacks trespassers with shrill and chatter-
ing zeal.
The black-necked stilt is by some persons called long-
shanks because of its reedlike legs. It wades like the avo-
cet, seeking worms and larvae, and in nesting time is as
nervous as the coot, keeping up a dismal click-clicking
sound that frightens everything but itself to death. In
Idaho there are the Bartramian, least, pectoral, spotted,
western, and solitary sandpipers. These birds, usually
called woodcocks, are among the most palatable of wild
fowl, and have in consequence been eagerly sought by hunt-
ers from the Gulf to Labrador and from coast to coast.
They feed on worms, declaring their presence by the round
bored holes they leave; and inasmuch as worms come to
the surface after dark, these birds are largely nocturnal.
Like the males of crane, plover, and owl, the woodcock
makes a clown of himself in mating time and exhausts his
energy in swift-winged antics. During amours the pec-
toral can inflate his neck until it bulges like a goitre, and
the spotted can swell out in his plumage until he is twice
his customary size. Of plover there are the golden,
black-bellied, and killdeer. Because they are fearless and
take a quick sprightly run before flying, they offer an
easy target and are diminishing in number with the ex-
ception of the killdeer, whose flesh is musky and insipid.
In moving over ground, the killdeer has the daintiest
alacrity of all birds. The bird which is often called upland
plover is the Bartramian sandpiper. The American or
Wilson's snipe is another table delicacy and is no longer
common. The male is amusing when wooing a mate. He
142 IDAHO
swoops upward, singing for all he is worth meanwhile,
and drops and rises again to his former level and drops
and rises again and again; until at last, as if exhausted
or discouraged, he comes to the earth through a series of
collapses and falls and recoveries and short spasmodic
flights.
The great white or American egret has in all seasons
entirely white plumage that in mating time is a splendor
of drooping plumes. A large bird, shy, and more taken
by wanderlust than ever because women seek its beauty,
the egret is not often seen in Idaho or elsewhere. Nor is
the ibis, though several species have been observed here.
The quail, however, is common, as is the long-billed cur-
lew also, especially on the shores of lakes. Gulls are
rapidly increasing, and most fortunately, inasmuch as
they are a deadly enemy of the grasshopper and cricket,
though of course they prey on fish, too. The western
herring gull, the only one whose head in winter is
streaked with dark, is not common in Idaho, nor is the
Bonaparte, which is perhaps the most elegant of the
family. But the ring-billed is now to be seen in hundreds
on the rivers and lakes. Very rare, on the other hand, is
the common American or whistling swan, though for-
merly it was in Idaho by thousands, and Swan Valley
was named for it. Those who years ago saw a flock of
these great white birds rise from the water say the
vision is the most memorable one of wild life. Neltje
Blanchan uses the symbol of a regatta, with the birds
moving like yachts under full sail ; and she declares that
the trumpetlike sound of their voices is equalled in power
only by the French horns "blown by red-faced Germans
at a Wagner opera." The musical ability of the swan
seems to be confined entirely to the minds of poets.
Smaller Birds: Of smaller birds of field and woods,
some of the commonest will be summarized first, then some
that favor tree or stream, and then some that are loveliest,
followed by some that sing most sweetly.
Of birds here, the western robin is perhaps not most
I
FAUNA 143
frequently seen but is most commonly recognized because
everyone who knows birds at all is familiar with this bird
that is not a robin but a thrush. Almost as abundant in
prairie and field is the mourning dove, whose melancholy
love notes have long endeared them to distracted lovers.
Blackbirds, especially the Brewer, were formerly to be
seen in enormous flocks, but cats have driven them out
of many parts of the State. The Brewer male is a hand-
some fellow with a remarkably liquid gurgling in his
querulous call; but the female looks like a smaller male
who long ago faded in sun and rain. The female redwing
also looks like a shoddy edition of her lord. The yellow-
headed blackbird, rare in the East, is to be found in huge
colonies in the West. The male is handsome in a dress
that is lustrous black save for a white patch on the wings,
and the brilliant yellow of the head, neck, and breast.
The absurd thing about him is his song: he spreads his
tail, inflates his throat, and after a harsh and experi-
mental tuning-up gives a long-drawn choking squeal. His
attempts are accompanied by contortions that suggest
anguish — and may be, for possibly he realizes how shame-
less it is for a lovely bird to sway on a willow and look
over a beautiful world and summarize his joy in so lam-
entable a squawk. This bird prefers flag swamps, tule
beds, and reed brakes.
Of swallows, there are, of course, several species : the
bank, smallest of the family, which digs surprisingly deep
holes in the earth; and the barn with its forked tail and
iridescent upper parts and sepia breast; the cliff, identified
by its glossy black back and chestnut rump and by its twit-
tering as it flies ; and the violet-green, loveliest of the swal-
low clan, whose metallic green plumage has purple lusters,
a silky white breast, and a violet-purple tail and nape.
Found here, too, are the white-bellied and the rough-
winged. Of sparrows, the most common, unfortunately, is
the English, a worthless parasite that drives most birds out
of their sanctuaries. The western vesper, often seen sing-
ing from post to post, is a common ground bird in sage-
144 IDAHO
brush areas, but the western song sparrow keeps close to
shrubbery. The white-crowned has a head striped black
and white; Gambel's crown has a delightful whistling
morning song ; and Brewer's, sometimes called sagebrush
chippy, is very common in arid regions. Common also are
chickadees, all varieties of which are easily identified by
the white stripe above their eye. Of j uncos or snowbirds
there are several varieties, often in large flocks, and all of
them very friendly and pert. The song of the Rocky Moun-
tain junco is a sweet little tinkling trill. The snowflake,
snow bunting, or snow lark, so named because it often rides
on the breast of a blizzard, inhabits the Arctic zone but
comes southward in the fall. Of flycatchers, there are at
least four varieties, all invaluable, and all covering a wide
range except possibly the olive-sided, which keeps to the
evergreens.
Of birds that keep close to trees, there are none in Idaho
that are better known or more amusing than the red-
shafted flicker : it differs from Eastern species in having
scarlet patches on the sides of its head, and brilliant red
instead of yellow on its tail and shafts. The male has an
absurdly elaborate courtship. Choosing the most indif-
ferent female he can find, he hops and bows and prances
and struts, all the while urging his suit with a hiccough-
ing song ; and when she takes to wing, he follows and re-
peats his performance almost without variation again
and again. The pileated woodpecker is found everywhere
in northern wooded regions; the hairy, with the scarlet
patch on the back of its head, in high forested latitudes ;
and the white-headed among the pines. The latter is a
Western bird that differs sharply from all other members
of the family : it is entirely black except for a white wing
patch, head, and neck, and a red nape. The downy has a
black back with a white stripe down its center, and the
male of the Arctic three-toed has white wing dots and a
yellow crown.
Rarer, and to many persons of greater interest, is the
Lewis, a wild and suspicious bird that remains in the
FAUNA 145
high forests. It has a blue-gray collar and dark red
around its bill and eyes. The pigmy nuthatch is abundant
in ail evergreen forests. These birds herd in flight from
tree to tree and keep up a rapid-fire call. The slender-
billed has a wretched song that sounds like hah-hah-hah,
a nasal exclamation that suggests perpetual astonish-
ment. In folklore called tree mice because of their dart-
ing flight, the nuthatches were named for their habit of
thrusting nuts into cracks and hammering at them with
their bills. The pine siskin, common in coniferous forests,
is a member of the finch family and has a call note ex-
actly like that of the goldfinch. Yellow patches show on
wings and tail when these are unfurled in flight. The
brown creeper can be recognized easily in autumn by its
manner of going nimbly up the trunk of a tree until it
reaches the first limbs and then flying to the foot of another
tree and repeating. Clark's nutcracker, the only American
representative of the European bird, is a high dweller
among the pines. A large bird with black wings, it is some-
times mistaken for a crow but its body is of pale gray. The
red-naped sapsucker is the Western counterpart of the
eastern yellow-bellied : it has a red patch below the black
of its head, and under parts tinted yellow. Commoner
is Williamson's with its yellow belly and narrow scarlet
throat patch. These rascals delight in the sap of fir and
pine trees, and any tree they take possession of is
doomed. The red crossbill is found only in dense ever-
green growth where, scorning migration, it stays as
long as there is food. This bird has a plump, dull red
body, brighter on the head and rump, browner on the
back with dusky markings, and dusky on the wings and
tail. In cutting to the seeds of pine cones, it climbs with
bill, feet, and wings and hangs or swings in every con-
ceivable position. Two birds with a preference for water
instead of trees are worthy of mention. The greater
yellow-legs (called also long-legged tattler, snipe, plov-
er) is a noisy citizen of marshes and estuaries, but not
common here. It is more than a foot in length and has
146 IDAHO
long, slender, chrome-yellow legs, a black back dusted
with ash and flecked with white, and a long, thin, green-
ish-black bill. Much more frequently seen is the water
ouzel or American dipper, a buoyantly impudent fellow
with a fine song. Having waterproofed feathers, this bird
flies easily under water and stays there solely by means
of its wings; but is quite as interesting when seen bob-
bing up and down, touching its breast to the water, or
tripping lightly.
Most wild birds are lovely but some are more gor-
geous in their color or pattern, and of these none in Idaho
is more conspicuous than the scarlet tanager. Infre-
quently seen, this handsome fellow, dressed in crimson
and black, olive and green, is, like the phantom orchid,
all the more impressive for its rareness. The Western
species was first seen in Idaho by Lewis and Clark in
1806. In striking contrast is the American raven, rare
east of the Mississippi but abundant in the West. It is
a large bird, sometimes more than two feet in length,
and though often confused with the crow, is larger, has
a more beautiful flight, and a blacker luster burnished
with purple. Where the raven is plentiful, the crow is
seldom found. In sharp contrast again is the ruby-
crowned kinglet, a lovely little fellow in yellow and white
and gray with a scarlet crown. Its antics when angered or
excited are unusually amusing, and its song, a prolonged
warble punctuated with wrennish chatter, is excellent.
The black-headed grosbeak, counterpart of the eastern
rose-breasted, has black head and wings, a tail marked
with white, a burnt-orange breast, and a horn-colored
bill. Its song is of bell-like clearness, smooth and mellow,
with careful high notes. In Idaho are also the western
evening, and the Rocky Mountain pine at higher eleva-
tions. In contrast again is the dainty perfection of the
western bluebird with its rich azure blue of head and
neck, purplish chestnut on the upper back, bluish-gray
lower breast, and black bill and feet. It is smaller than
the Eastern species and, unlike it, does not sing. Similar
FAUNA 147
in color, but with more green, and with white on the
belly, is the mountain bluebird. Exquisite, too, are the
hummingbirds with their tiny feet, their quick tempers,
and their busy and fearless dispositions. The black-
chinned, with its black throat patch, is the nearest West-
ern relative of the ruby-throated. The male in courtship
cuts dazzling figure eights above his lady and implores
her with long windy whistles. The broad-tailed is larger
but in plumage resembles the ruby-throated. The red-
backed rufous, commonest in the West, is of cinnamon
red ; and the calliope, smallest bird in America, is a dainty
fellow only three inches long with a bronzed-green back
and a lilac throat patch. Hardly less exquisite is the
lazuli bunting, a bird only five or six inches in length,
with a rich lapis-lazuli head and neck, green-blue uppers,
a chestnut-brown breast, and broad white wing bars. The
male has a pleasing little song much like that of the
indigo finch and is common in foothills and canyons.
Of the same size is the American redstart, found
chiefly in the East but occasionally seen in Idaho. The
male is of glossy blue black with white belly and flanks
and flame-colored sides and under wings. In folklore it
goes under the names of fire-tail and live coals. The Bo-
hemian waxwing is slightly larger, as is the cedar also.
The second of these travels in huge flocks throughout
the year and is fond of cedar thickets, where it feeds on
the berries. This bird is immaculately groomed, with a
pronounced crest tapering back and up from the forehead,
and with sleek silky feathers. Its song has been compared
with the pianissimo of the whistle belonging to an Italian
peanut vendor. The kingbird (bee-bird or bee-martin) is
of bluish gray with a flaming crown that is seen only
when the crest is erect. This fiery fellow, only eight
inches in length, is an inveterate enemy of crows, hawks,
and owls, all of which it seems to attack for the sheer fun
of it. On the other hand, it is routed by the tiny hum-
mingbird. The kingbird, nevertheless, has been known,
Myers declares, to drive cats and dogs down the street.
148 IDAHO
pecking them on the back and tail. The yellow-billed
cuckoo (rain crow, rain dove, storm crow, chowchow) has
a black bill with a yellow under mandible, white-tipped
tail feathers, a satiny olive-gray or lilac back touched
with iridescent green, and cinnamon rufous wings. His
song is a succession of spasmodic gurgles. Very common,
and endeared to all who know him, is the Rocky Mountain
jay, the most pertly impudent (and yet entirely friendly)
bird in the forests. He delights in standing on limbs to
watch campers, eyeing them with astonished interest and
often coming close for a more thorough scrutiny. In
Idaho, too, are found the woodhouse, black-headed, and
pifion jays. Bullock's oriole resembles the eastern Balti-
more in size and shape but is more prodigal in the orange
on its head and neck. Like the Baltimore, it is the finest
staccato singer among the birds, and is rivaled in limpid
tone only by the thrush. But the Western species is a shy
hermit, and his clarion song is not often heard.
Of wild melodists, the rock wren, common in most
parts of the State, is not least, and is thought by Dawson
to have the most sprightly and musical tune of any bird
west of the Mississippi. It is about six inches long, and
both sexes are of pale brownish gray above with a cinna-
mon rump and dull white under parts. The canyon wren,
also common, has a famous clarion song given in a quick
descending scale and ending in a little upward trill. It is
brown except for white throat and breast, and is dis-
tinguished from the rock wren by its clear cinnamon-
brown tail zigzagged with fine black lines. It is, as its
name implies, a resident of canyons. The one listed by
Myers as the western house wren is apparently the one
given by Coues as Parkman's. The male is worthy of note
because of his joyful song and his patience: after he has
sung and labored over a nest, his spouse comes on the
scene and flies at him angrily and rebuilds the nest to suit
her fancy; and the male sings almost without pause and
clearly without resentment as he watches her work. The
common purple finch warbles like a vireo but his throat is
FAUNA 149
larger and his melody fuller. The male house finch has a
bubbling gurgling canarylike song that he pours forth
at all seasons of the year. When his lady ignores him he
sits on a twig above or below her and sings his heart out.
The pale goldfinch, with his black cap and white mark-
ings, is peculiar to the Rocky Mountains and is also tire-
lessly cheerful. His courtship song during short flights is
in abandon second only to the bobolink's, but not so sweet
in melody as the song sparrow's. As if suspecting that
his song is not all that it should be, he will deliver a suc-
cession of rapid chirps and then deliver his whole being
into a rhapsodic per-chic-o-ree-per-chic-o-ree. The bob-
olink, a species of marsh blackbird, occurs chiefly in East-
ern States and is seen in the West only during migration.
The breeding plumage of the male during spring and
summer is a flawless black, white, and buff. Later, it lays
oif its full dress for a homespun brown and becomes the
reedbird or ricebird of the South. The bubbling delirious
ecstasy of its song is heard only in mating season, for the
song changes with the feathers and becomes a monoto-
nous syllable. When mating, the male begins with clear
whistles suggestive of waltz time but presently reaches a
mad outpouring of irrepressible joy in which the motif
explodes and is lost in a burst of melodious fireworks. Of
warblers, there are several species in the State, including
the orange-crowned, the blue-eyed yellow (wild canary) ,
the Townsend, Audubon's, MacGillivray's, the pileolated,
the western yellow-throat, and the black-throated green,
all of which are fairly common and sweetly liquid song-
sters. The elegantly slender western mockingbird, a scold
and a mimic, is ash gray above with a shopworn white
belly, a black tail, and black wings patched with white.
During mating season the males sing night and day,
perched high in treetops where they prance along the
boughs or leap ecstatically into the air.
But for some, the birds of sweetest song in Idaho are
the solitaire, thrush, thrasher, and lark. Townsend's
solitaire is a fly-catching thrush that is found only in
150 IDAHO
the Western States and is a bird of mountain solitudes.
Its strong and beautiful song has about it a freshness and
a clarion quality as deep and mellow as the sound of a
bell. The sage thrasher, too, also found only in Western
States, is a splendid singer ; and often long after dark, or
like the mockingbird in moonlight, he pours out his
melody where there are few to hear. This bird can be
recognized by triangular dusky spots on its grayish-
brown plumage, strung in such close series that they look
like chains. The varied thrush is the only representative
of ground thrushes in the Western Hemisphere. Its upper
parts are of slate, its under of orange brown fading to
white. It has a weird and wholly individual song that is
long drawn out with notes in various keys. Of the song
of the famous Audubon's hermit thrush, Coues says:
"Sweet, silvery, bell-like notes which, beginning soft, low,
and tinkling, rise higher and higher, to end abruptly with
a clear ringing intonation." Some have said this is the
sweetest singer on wings. But for those who have lived
long on the Western prairies there is no song so haunt-
ing, so invested with all that the prairie means, as that of
the common meadow lark. Years ago its limpid and
varied and mellowed refrain rang from every countryside,
but today it is much less frequently heard, not only be-
cause it nests on the ground but also because of thousands
of domestic cats that have been freed to run wild. Ex-
quisitely liquid, too, is the song of the warbling vireo,
which used to be almost as common as the lark.
VII
HUNTING AND FISHING
IDAHO GAME LAWS
The Idaho fish and game license carries a long synopsis
of the fish and game laws of the State. Because conditions
change from season to season, because areas are opened or
closed as game and fish become too abundant or too de-
pleted, no summary given here would be trustworthy six
months from now.
Ordinarily there is a long open season on trout in all
parts of the State, though many streams now closed may
be opened soon, and others now open may be closed. The
season on birds is even more variable. Local conditions of
many kinds affect the production of wild fowl, and often
it is not known until late in the summer what areas will be
opened to hunting in the fall, or for how long a season.
Less variable are the restrictions placed on big game,
though even in regard to elk and deer, goat and sheep
and antelope, areas are opened or closed from year to year.
Antelope, formerly protected, are now available in the
Pahsimeroi Valley, but will not be, of course, as soon as
the number has been reduced to the grazing resources.
In general the bag limit on larger animals is one; on
fish, from ten to forty pounds per day; and on game birds
from four to eight per day. Unlawful ways in either hunt-
ing or fishing also vary somewhat from area to area. In-
quiry in regard to this as well as all other matters should
be made of the game warden in the region chosen.
STATE OF IDAHO
MAP OF
PISH BIO GAME BIRDS
itat
BIG GAME Bvo.sTRicTs estimated r^^sus
DEER KOJXn MT GOAT '5,000
^^'' ZflOO Purr SHEEP 2.0O0
^'-** 20^000 COUGAR 1,000
MOOSE 1.500 ANTELOPE IS.OOO
BIRDS BY COUNTIES 5»-UeOL5 ^
8- GROUSE Q-QUAIL
C-CHINESE PHEASANT S-SAGE HEN
D-DUCK G-GEESE
nSH B» DIS
^^^ BASS ^P^^^H^^^ STURGEON
"OUT WA^^^ SALMON
LEGEND
'bk.t:- state boundary LINES
r^rr.— COUNTY BOUNDARY LINES
"^ RIVERS-CREEKS
X^ FEDERAL HIGHWAYS
(~^ STATE HIGHWAYS
BOISE STATE CAPITOL
COUNTY SEATS
OTHER IDAHO TOWNS
STATE FtSH HATCHERY
STATE BIRD SANCTUARY
STATE GAME PRESERVE
1 1 1 1^1° ^1° t °r "t
SCALE ^^^^B* ^^^^^
1 _0 WYHCE
UTAH
VII
HUNTING AND FISHING
'O STATE in the Union is a more undeveloped nat-
ural playground or has more to offer in hunting and
fishing and remote primitive areas than Idaho. Most of
the State is mountainous, almost half of it lies under
forests and game preserves, and all of it except the few
cultivated valleys is a huge network of wilderness and
lakes and streams. Without the funds of some States, its
game and fish department has been severely handicapped
in stocking the streams and protecting wild life ; but great
strides have been made in the last few years, and an am-
bitious program now could foresee the development of the
enormous potential resources. In the Stanley Basin area
alone there are approximately one thousand lakes, and
at present all but 15 per cent of them are barren ; but it
is planned to stock all these and barren lakes elsewhere
just as rapidly as production can be increased. In parts
of the State it is intended to place different species in
different lakes so that fishermen can take a weekly trip
and fish a different lake and a different kind of trout each
day. Old hatcheries are being modernized, new ones are
being built, and more determined steps are being taken
to exterminate the worst of the predatory birds and
beasts. Millions are spent annually now in Idaho on fish-
ing and hunting but the present sum is doubtless only a
small part of what will eventually be spent. Idaho's op-
portunity to become one of the great playgrounds of the
Nation is second to no other opportunity facing it today.
154 IDAHO
A large and constructive program in Idaho at the
present time would be especially opportune. All parts of
the United States, according to recent articles in the Sat-
urday Evening Post, have been largely depleted, particu-
larly in regard to fish, of which for the entire country in
1935 fewer than one hundred millions were put into the
lakes and streams. In the same year more than fifteen mil-
lions of fishing licenses were sold. This means only six
trout to the angler, even if predatory birds and beasts
were all exterminated ; but as a matter of fact these ene-
mies take more fish from water than the anglers them-
selves. The annual fish and game turnover in the United
States is more than a billion dollars; and that is three
times the value of its wheat and five times the value of
its sheep. The average value of a domestic sheep in
Wyoming, for instance, is five dollars, but this State com-
putes the value of an elk taken by a nonresident hunter
at anywhere between five hundred and a thousand dol-
lars. And not only are anglers and huntsmen among men
increasing rapidly but women, too, are taking more and
more to the rod and gun.
In big game hunting, Idaho is said to have in its
Chamberlain Basin and Selway the finest area in the
country. In this vast region deer are especially numer-
ous, as well as upon the Middle Fork of the Salmon River
and the headwaters of Payette and Boise Rivers and the
Kaniksu and Priest River sections in the extreme north.
But deer are found in all the National Forests, in some of
which they are now protected throughout the year, and
are by far the most abundant large animal in the State.
Moose are largely confined to the Selway and Lochsa
Rivers in the northern part, and to the Island Park area
west of Yellowstone. Elk are most numerous in the Clear-
water, Selway, Lochsa, and St. Joe Rivers in the north,
and in the Chamberlain Basin. There are some on the
Boise and Payette Rivers and in the Seven Devils region
but these areas are closed. The two great herds of ante-
lope are to be found in the Pahsimeroi Valley and adja-
HUNTING AND FISHING 155
cent terrain and in the southwest corner of Owyhee
County. In the former there is now a short open season
because of damage to farms and in an effort to scatter the
herd. Mountain goats are found chiefly between the head
of Priest Lake and Canada (this region is now closed), in
the Selway and Lochsa areas, in the Bitterroot Mountains,
and upon the Middle Fork of Salmon River. Mountain
sheep cover much the same range with the exception of
the Priest Lake terrain. Cougar, of which two score or
more are taken annually, affect chiefly the Priest Lake
district, the Selway, and the Middle Fork. In the winter
of 1935-6, twenty-two were taken upon the Payette River.
George Lowe of Kooskia is now the most successful cou-
gar hunter in the State. Bear are fairly numerous in all
the National Forests except those in the extreme south,
though grizzlies are few, with a small number remaining
in the Selway and above Priest Lake. The foregoing are
the principal but by no means the only areas in which the
larger game animals are to be found.
Game Fowl: The chief bird is the Chinese (ringnecked)
pheasant, which is fairly common in nearly all of the val-
leys. This handsome fellow, invaluable as a destroyer of
insects, is eagerly sought by sportsmen the world over. Its
number is being increased in Idaho. Next in abundance is
blue grouse (Franklin, dusky, gray, pine, or fool hen),
which is found only in the forests. This bird has back and
wings of blackish brown, finely zigzagged with slaty
pencilings, and a yellow comb. It is so indifferent to danger
that it often passes under the colloquial name of fool hen.
Of other grouse in Idaho, the Franklin spruce is often mis-
taken for the other chiefly because of its stupid fool-
hardiness, though, too, it is like the other in its coniferous
preferences and in its food. Resembling the blue in ap-
pearance is Richardson's but the latter is uniformly dark-
er and has more black on its throat. The pintailed grouse
(prairie chicken, native pheasant) is rapidly disappearing
along with the sage hen, the chief enemies of which are
sheep and coyotes. The sage hen, however, can still be
156 IDAHO
found in huge flocks in parts of the State, especially in
eastern Idaho. This bird, largest of the American grouse
family, mates in springtime with stentorian hullaballoo,
walks with an absurdly cocky gait, and flies with swift
energetic wingbeats or coasts down the wind. Formerly
on the Western prairies it was numbered in millions. The
quail or bobwhite is increasing in the State and is now
fairly numerous in the western counties and in Nez Perce
and Clearwater Counties up north. The Hungarian par-
tridge, more widely distributed, seems likely to hold its
own against hunters, inasmuch as it is easily flushed and
gets away with astonishing speed.
The State has tens of thousands of wild ducks, many
of which do not migrate, and among which the mallard
is commonest. This handsome bird, easily recognized
by anyone who knows ducks at all, is the wild parent of
the barnyard fowl. It is a valuable bird, not only for
game, especially after a season in the grain fields, but
for its destruction of insects as well. The green-winged
teal is distinguished by a rich chestnut head and upper
neck, broken by a glistening green patch behind either
eye. The green-winged, only a migrant here, has a
black-bordered white crescent in front of either eye, and
wing coverts and outer webs of some of the scapular
feathers of sky blue. The cinnamon, a South American
bird, has a black bill, a mauve-chestnut head, neck, and
under parts, darkening to black on the belly. Teals are
common in Idaho. Barrow's goldeneye has a pansy-pur-
ple sheen on his head which lengthens to a fringed crest.
The white spots in front of each eye are triangular in this
species, circular in the American golden. This duck is a
wide ranger.
The well-known canvasback has a reddish-brown head
and neck, black crown and chin, and a silvery back. Of
this famous table delicacy, Coues says there "is little
reason to squeal in barbaric joy over this overrated and
generally underdone bird ; for not one person in ten thou-
sand can tell it from any other duck on the table" unless
t ?
Snake River sturgeon
HUNTING AND FISHING 157
it has been fattened on celery. The redhead, in fact, is
often sold for it in the East, a bird smaller but very simi-
lar in appearance, and hardly distinguishable in flavor.
This is chiefly a bay or sea duck, though often found in-
land upon lakes. The male of the shoveller (spoonbill) is
a jaunty fellow in mating season with a metallic green
head much like the mallard's, an amethyst abdomen and
a white breast ; but after wooing he sheds his gay clothes
and looks much like his wife. He is easily identified by
his spatulate bill. The ring-necked scaup, first discovered
by Lewis and Clark in 1806, has a lustrous iridescent
head above its collar, and lower belly and sides finely
waved in black. The lesser (or common winter) scaup is,
like its cousin, the greater, a sea duck but prefers fresh
lakes and has gone as far inland as the Dakotas. The
flesh of these scaups is as offensive as their horrible cry ;
and so is that of the merganser, one of the worst enemies
of fish. It has a head and neck of burnished mallard
green, white under parts tinged with salmon, and a shin-
ing black upper part, graying to ash on the rump and tail.
Known in Idaho as the common fish duck, and unfortunate-
ly common, this vandal, fishermen declare, ought to be ex-
terminated. And with it ought to go the ruddy duck, a bird
that has survived enough preposterous names to produce
a civil war : it has been called dumpling, deaf, fool, sleepy,
butter-bowl, blather-scoot, spine-tail, dopper, mud-dipper,
paddy-whack, stub-and-twist, and both dinkey and dickey.
Belonging to the ducks with stiff tail feathers, its upper
parts are a rich rufous chestnut, with white sides, silken
white under parts, and a black patch on its head. It is an
expert underwater bird with the skill of the cormorant
in using its rudder. The Bufflehead is a small fellow, re-
lated to but distinguishable from the goldeneye by the
broad snowy patches behind each eye, running to the
back of the head and uniting in a nape. The head is an
iridescent splendor of violet-purple and green. This duck,
also a survival of a score of names (butter duck, butter-
ball, woolhead, conjuring duck, spirit duck, butterback).
158 IDAHO
has no peer as an expert diver, and vanishes like lightning
at the spit of a gun. The pintail has also suffered outrage.
Known variously as sprigtail, piketail, peaktail, spindle-
tail, litetail, splittail, it ranges widely and is numerous.
The male has a dark sepia head, a neck glossed with
green and purple and adorned below with a white and
above with a black stripe, and long black feathers in the
center of the tail. The wood duck has almost been shot
out of existence. The male's plumage is almost spec-
tacular in its range of colors, with green, purple, and vio-
let on the head, snowy white embroidery on the wings,
and a voluptuously lustered black-and-bronzed purple and
green on the back.
Those are among the chief species that come to Idaho
in thousands. The principal spot which they affect is Lake
Lowell, where often they form a margin of color many
feet wide for miles; but they are also abundant on the
lakes of northern Idaho and particularly in the Hoodoo
region ; on the lakes in southeastern Idaho, chiefly Grays
and Mud Lakes; and upon Snake River from Milner
to the Oregon line. In wintertime the ducks on this
river customarily average fifteen hundred to the mile.
Geese are not so common by any means but are increas-
ing. The black brant, distinguished by its clean white
collar, open only at the back of the neck, and the darker
under parts, is abundant on the west coast and more and
more frequently comes inland. The Canada, the common
wild goose and the best known in North America, has
become famous for its V-formation in flight and for its
honk. The head and neck are black with a broad white
throat strap. This is the commonest species in Idaho.
Ross's snow goose, all white and only about as large as a
mallard duck, and the lesser snow goose, a little larger,
and the greater snow goose with its white plumage
stained brown on its head, are all seen, but not commonly,
in migration.
Fish: To say that fishing in Idaho or anywhere else in
the United States is excellent upon those streams easily
HUNTING AND FISHING 159
reached by highway would probably be a gross misrepre-
sentation. Fishing here, as elsewhere, ranges from de-
pleted streams to streams that are heavily stocked and
rarely visited. Expert anglers can catch their limit nearly
anywhere in the State, but the less skilled must expect to
travel the unimproved highways or take mountain trails
to spots where trout are both abundant and foolish, and
not fastidious about their food. Such streams and such
lakes number hundreds in nearly all of the more moun-
tainous areas.
The commonest trout in the State is the rainbow, which
is distinguished (if at all) from the steelhead by its
smaller size, its brighter coloring, and its larger scales.
It takes a fly so readily that there is no need to pursue
grasshoppers over the hillsides or to buy fanciful and
deceptive gadgets ; and it is so gamey that it will satisfy
the most exacting angler. Its simple-witted indifference
to a hook and line make of it delightfully easy prey for
the inexperienced greenhorn. Its flesh is excellent. The
rainbow is widely distributed but is especially common
from Big Springs to the Oregon line in Snake River; in
Big and Little Lost Rivers; in Silver Creek out from
Hailey, noted for its fly fishing; in Salmon River and in
Williams Lake near Salmon City; in Boise River and all
its tributaries; in the Payette River and Lakes and in
the whole Payette district ; and in the Clearwater, St. Joe,
and Coeur d'Alene Rivers in the north.
Second in abundance is the cutthroat or native trout.
In color it is of a silvery olivaceous, deepening to dark
steel, with the upper part of the side and the caudal
peduncle covered with round black spots, with under parts
silvery white, and with red blotches of the lower jaw
usually constant. In general it is to be found in nearly
all of the rivers and streams but more notably in Snake
River; in Henrys Lake which for its size contains more
fish than any other body of water in the State; in all
branches of the Salmon River but particularly in the
Middle Fork; in the higher tributaries of the Boise and
160 IDAHO
Payette Rivers ; in the St. Joe and Clark Fork Rivers ; and
in Coeur d'Alene, Pend d'Oreille, and Priest Lakes and all
their feeders.
The eastern brook or speckled trout is third, the fish
most in demand by Eastern anglers. This fish likes quiet
waters and is at its best in high mountain lakes. It takes
a fly readily and is a vigorous if not spectacular fighter;
and if taken from cold water its flesh is excellent, though
owing to its large amount of oil it does not remain firm
as long as the meat of other trout. In Idaho it is to be
found chiefly in Buffalo River and in a private pond there
which contains some extremely large specimens; near
Big Springs, though this is not a brook-trout area ; in the
Sawtooth region and especially in Redfish and other lakes ;
in the higher lakes of the Grangeville district; in a few
tributary streams and in the higher lakes in the Clear-
water area ; and from Coeur d'Alene northward, wherein
is the heaviest planting in both lakes and streams. This
is a more cannibalistic trout than either rainbow or cut-
throat and does not in Idaho enjoy the same esteem.
Fourth in abundance is the Dolly Varden or bull trout,
a voracious and cannibalistic lout that is not reared in
Idaho hatcheries and is not introduced into any of the
barren lakes that are being stocked. Its fiesh is not so
good as that of other trout, it is an erratic and annoying
feeder that often scorns even salmon eggs, its favorite
bait, and it raises havoc with salmon spawning. It is a
native to nearly all the mountain streams and to many
of the lakes.
Probably next in order are bass, catfish, and perch.
The first is found in the warmer waters of the Boise
Valley and westward, especially in Lake Lowell ; in Snake
River along the Owyhee Range ; and in practically all the
larger northern lakes. The catfish is found in Snake
River from Swan Falls to Weiser ; in Lake Lowell ; in the
Crane Creek Reservoir; in various sloughs in the Boise-
Weiser area; and in a few lakes and streams near Coeur
d'Alene. The perch is found in the American Falls and
HUNTING AND FISHING 161
Minidoka and Magic Reservoirs ; in Lake Lowell ; in Snake
River from Crane Falls to Payette; in the Lost Valley
Reservoir near Tamarack; in the Payette Lakes; and in
the Hayden, Black, Cocolalla, Coeur d'Alene, and other
lakes in the north. Bass, catfish, and perch are dead-v^^ater
fish.
At the other extreme is the steelhead, in regard to
which in Idaho there is tall argument. Some say that this
fish is nothing but a seagoing rainbow, and others say it
is not a rainbow at all. In any case, it is migratory in
habit, going to the ocean after it has grown to adolescence
in fresh-water streams or lakes, and returning later to
spawn. It comes from the sea to Idaho between December
and early spring, and is taken by fly or by bait or spinner
or with spear. It is the gamiest of native trout, and the
flesh, when not out of condition from spawning, is excel-
lent. The largest one ever taken on a rod weighed twenty-
two pounds, but a steelhead of that size is rare. This fish
in Idaho is found chiefly in the Salmon River and its
branches, where it is sometimes known as salmon trout;
in Weiser River ; and in the Clearwater River, which has
the greatest run. The steelheads taken in Idaho are
usually yearlings, about seven to ten inches in length,
before they have gone to the sea.
Several species of salmon spawn in Idaho, but no at-
tempt has been made to commercialize them, and they are
rarely taken except by spear. The chinook is the largest
and most important of all the Pacific species, and this
one comes to the Salmon River and its tributaries, ar-
riving in early fall. The offspring remain about a year
and then return to the ocean, where they stay for from
four to seven years before they seek fresh water to spawn
and die. In this State those speared do not often exceed
twenty pounds in weight, though some have been taken
that weighed more than fifty. The big redfish or sockeye
salmon formerly spawned in the Payette and Redfish
Lakes areas but is unable to reach them now. It does still
come to the lower Payette waters, and may be found
162 IDAHO
below Sunbeam Dam, The landlocked species is a fresh-
water fish and does not thrive in the absence of fresh-
water smelt, which is its chief food. The Schoodic salmon
from eastern Maine has been planted in Payette Lakes and
in several lakes in the Sawtooth area. It is a game fish
of excellent flesh, and many anglers rate it as a fighter
above any species of trout.
From an entirely commercial point of view, the most
important fish in the State is a species of Rocky Mountain
whitefish in the larger northern lakes. This fish smoked
is in great demand. Several hundred families are now
almost entirely supported by this small industry, which
promises to grow considerably, inasmuch as the State
hatcheries plan soon to put not twelve but seventy mil-
lions annually into these lakes. Fishermen are compelled
to fish for these and not use a net, and are at present
limited to a daily catch of fifty pounds. In Bear Lake
there are said to be three species of whitefish peculiar
to it.
Of other fish in the State, a few are worthy of men-
tion. The Loch Leven, said to be peculiar to the Scotch
lake of the same name, has been confused with the brown
or Von Behr trout, and in the United States there has
been much hybridizing of the two. Loch Leven occurs in
Idaho in such waters as the upper reaches of the South
Fork of the Snake, and in Montana in the Madison River.
In Lake Waha twenty-two miles south of Lewiston, and
apparently found nowhere in the world except here, is a
curious and interesting trout which in quality of meat is
said to be unsurpassed. This lake has no outlet. In Snake
River, along Owyhee County especially, sturgeon are
abundant, and sturgeon fishing in Idaho is one of the most
exciting sports. Specimens have been taken that weighed
almost a thousand pounds, but the average runs to no more
than a fraction of that weight. In Bloomington Lake in
southeastern Idaho and in Trinity Lakes on the South Fork
of Boise River, California golden trout have been planted.
It is planned to add this rare species to other waters.
VIII
RESOURCES AND PRODUCTS
I
i;
1 1 wavd
nVNOIlVN
O N I lA) O A M
VIII
RESOURCES AND PRODUCTS
IDAHO'S resources are to be found in its minerals (both
ferrous and nonferrous), in its forests, in its water,
both for power and irrigation, and in its land. In addition
to these, it has vast wealth, for the most part unexploited,
in its wild life and in its potential playground. The two
latter are discussed in other chapters.
Land: Measured in production in terms of dollars,
agriculture (including dairying) is first, livestock is sec-
ond, timber is third, and minerals are fourth among the
State's industries. Of 53,960,000 acres, 39 per cent is
forested, 36 per cent is primarily grazing, and less than
8 per cent is cultivated. Of the total, 36 per cent is
within National Forests; 21 per cent is public domain;
6 per cent is owned by the State ; 1 per cent is in Indian
reservations; 10 per cent is unsold land withdrawn for
reclamation projects, parks, and game preserves ; and the
remaining 26 per cent is in private hands. Of that under
grazing, nearly all is indefinitely beyond reclamation or
other than grazing uses. Of the Indian lands, 57,000 acres
remain unallotted. Of the less than 8 per cent under cul-
tivation, a little more than half is irrigated, and the re-
mainder is dry grainlands chiefly, though there are areas
in Northern Idaho with diversified crops where rainfall is
ample. Of the forested areas, a considerable part is now
logged off or burnt over or otherwise denuded, and most
of it is valueless save for reforesting. Of the unirrigated
acreage under grain, a good deal suffers crop losses for
VIII
RESOURCES AND PRODUCTS
IDAHO'S resources are to be found in its minerals (both
ferrous and nonferrous), in its forests, in its water,
both for power and irrigation, and in its land. In addition
to these, it has vast wealth, for the most part unexploited,
in its wild life and in its potential playground. The two
latter are discussed in other chapters.
Land: Measured in production in terms of dollars,
agriculture (including dairying) is first, livestock is sec-
ond, timber is third, and minerals are fourth among the
State's industries. Of 53,960,000 acres, 39 per cent is
forested, 36 per cent is primarily grazing, and less than
8 per cent is cultivated. Of the total, 36 per cent is
within National Forests; 21 per cent is public domain;
6 per cent is owned by the State ; 1 per cent is in Indian
reservations; 10 per cent is unsold land withdrawn for
reclamation projects, parks, and game preserves; and the
remaining 26 per cent is in private hands. Of that under
grazing, nearly all is indefinitely beyond reclamation or
other than grazing uses. Of the Indian lands, 57,000 acres
remain unallotted. Of the less than 8 per cent under cul-
tivation, a little more than half is irrigated, and the re-
mainder is dry grainlands chiefly, though there are areas
in Northern Idaho with diversified crops where rainfall is
ample. Of the forested areas, a considerable part is now
logged off or burnt over or otherwise denuded, and most
of it is valueless save for reforesting. Of the unirrigated
acreage under grain, a good deal suffers crop losses for
166 IDAHO
want of rain, and within recent years many of these
farms have been abandoned to the weeds. Much of the
36 per cent which is used primarily for grazing has been
overfed and needs careful restoration. Of the total area,
there is said to be more than a million acres with owner-
ship unaccounted for.^
Water Poiver: Closely related to land in this State are,
of course, the resources in water, most of which remain un-
developed. Aside from its thousands of fresh lakes, Idaho
has scores of rivers, and countless large creeks, many of
which are of major importance in both length and volume.
Of greatest value, both available and potential, is Snake
River with its many tributaries. Both the Salmon and the
Clearwater Rivers have huge possibilities in power but are
inaccessible to irrigation save in small basins. The water
in the northern part of the State, both rivers and lakes, is
chiefly of value for transportation and power, inasmuch
as rainfall there makes irrigation largely unnecessary.
The southern part of the State, on the other hand, has not,
for all its streams, enough water for its use. Plans are
afoot to divert rivers out of Montana and Wyoming and
possibly to bring the lower flow of Snake River into the
Boise Valley; and the Bruneau Project promises to turn
the arid region east of Boise into a garden. But at
present, Payette Valley is the only part of Idaho south
of the Salmon River that has enough water for its need.
Elsewhere, it is true, there is enough water to irrigate
more land than is now under cultivation if that water
were all delivered to reservoirs and then wisely appor-
tioned and used. Reclamation in Idaho has been largely
experimental, and in most instances too sectional, and in
consequence rival interests have seriously vitiated efforts
that have been made. The Snake River Valley itself should
be one enormous reclamation project with the various
units subserving one another downstream and with all
of them integrated into a related pattern.
1 University of Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin
207.
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RESOURCES AND PRODUCTS 167
Though the State's distance from markets places in-
definitely in the future any development of large power
sites, this chapter would be incomplete without a sum-
mary of the possibilities. There are at present more than
sixty hydroelectric plants powered by natural falls in the
rivers or by falls made by the reclamation dams. These
together develop about 292,000 horsepower in compari-
son with the 2,704,000 horsepower that remain un-
touched. Snake River itself has a greater annual flow
than either the Colorado or the Rio Grande and has a
drainage basin ninth in size in the United States. If all its
water could be used, it would irrigate four million acres of
land and develop three million horsepower. Nearly 70 per
cent of the irrigable land within its basin has been sup-
plied with water, but only 7 per cent of its water power
has been put to use. A few of its more important unex-
ploited power sites now follow.
Below the mouth of the Salmon River the absolute
minimum flow is 7,000 second-feet, and this has in flood-
time reached 130,000 second-feet. A flood of 300,000
second-feet is not by any means impossible downstream
from its confluence with the Salmon. The only developed
plant on the Snake between Weiser and Lewiston is at
Ox Bow where an average of 1,800 kilowatts is produced.
During this stretch between the two cities the flow is
well sustained, the gradient is steep, the gorge is in most
places comparatively narrow, and the rock formation
would apparently support a dam of almost any height.
Some fifteen sites in this canyon and in canyons adjacent
have been investigated; and one alone, involving a com-
bination of the Snake and Salmon waters and a fall of
540 feet, would, on the basis of 50 per cent of the time,
develop almost a million horsepower. The fifteen sites,
varying in estimated power from 18,000 to 910,000, are
all within 104 miles. But development here must await a
great industrialization of the Pacific Coast.
North of these sites is the Clark Fork of the Columbia,
which doubles back, just south of the Canadian boundary.
168 IDAHO
into a Z-canyon where the river almost literally turns
upon its edge and pours through a gorge only eighteen
feet wide. This river rises in the Silver Bow Mountains
about eighteen miles southwest of Butte, Montana, and
is fed by more than a hundred tributaries before it
crosses Idaho. It has many falls, and often passes
through boxed canyons so narrow that they can be
spanned by footlogs. It drops nearly five hundred feet in
the last fifty miles of its course. In addition to all these
circumstances that favor power sites is the fact that its
flow on entering Idaho is almost two thirds that of the
Snake in its journey through the Seven Devils Canyon.
Upon the Snake and its tributaries in Wyoming, Idaho,
Oregon, and Washington, there are 284 sites that have
been listed, 249 of which are in Idaho. The latter have a
potential production of 2,974,630 horsepower. These sites
are scattered along the Snake and the chief streams that
feed it, notably the Salmon, and are to be found at the
natural waterfalls, which are many, or at the boxed can-
yons where dams are feasible. There are even power
possibilities at some of the springs which burst from
mountainsides. Most remarkable, and potentially most
valuable, are those between Milner and King Hill. But
Idaho's power, like much of its mineral wealth, belongs
for the most part to the remote future.
Livestock: In the early days of its settlement, Idaho
was a huge cattle ranch with enormous prairies rich in
natural feed. It still has millions of acres under grazing,
and livestock is still second in size of its industries; but
the State's future here is not, save for the indefatigable
optimists, unusually bright. All of the areas have been
overgrazed, including those in National Forests, and some
of them have been temporarily destroyed. Wild grasses
cannot be fed off year after year without reseeding, and
some of them cannot be cropped closely in drouth years
without being killed. This is especially true when areas
are grazed by sheep. Efforts are being made at the pres-
ent time to find a hardier grass that will stand both
RESOURCES AND PRODUCTS 169
aridity and punishment, and in the crested wheat grass it
is possible that one has been found. But even so, it would
take many years to restore lands to their former luxu-
riance, and meanwhile the problem of grazing becomes
increasingly acute.
Timber: The production of lumber has steadily moved
westward, and within another two decades the Rocky
Mountain and Pacific States will doubtless be producing
the major part of the lumber supply of the United States.
Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania, once famous for the
amount and quality of their lumber, now produce less
combined than Idaho. In 1870 the Northeastern States
supplied 38 per cent of the Nation's output: today that
circumstance is almost exactly reversed. But Idaho has
little to boast of in regard to the intelligence with which
it has protected its forested wealth. Only forty years ago
nearly all of its timbered acres were public domain, but
today the State owns only about a million acres, with the
consequence that by 1910 ten persons owned a large part
of the State's forests — more than four million acres of
the best. "As a general proposition, it can be stated that
the most accessible timber is very largely privately
owned."^
Almost half of Idaho lies within forested areas. About
a million acres are owned by the State, about four million
by private interests, and about nineteen million by the
Federal Government. Of standing timber, 8.8 per cent is
owned by the State, 30.3 per cent by persons, and 60.9
per cent by the Federal Government. Of that within Na-
tional Forests, about half must be classed "as indefinitely
or permanently inaccessible." Within national forests,
Idaho has a larger area than any other State in the Union,
with California second and Montana third.
The State is estimated to have about eighty-one billions
of feet of old-growth timber. Of this, more than three
fourths is found in the Panhandle, lying between the Sal-
1 Idaho Forest and Timber Handbook.
170 IDAHO
mon River and the Canadian boundary. More than ten
million of the thirteen million acres in northern Idaho lie
under timber. Of the commercially valuable trees, western
w^hite pine, 17 per cent of the total stand, is first. This tree
is found only in the northern part. Western yellow pine,
more widely distributed, is next in commercial value, and
is about 20 per cent of the stand, and Douglas fir, which,
together with larch, is 28 per cent of the growth, is third.
The remaining 35 per cent is chiefly lodgepole, white and
alpine fir, Engelmann spruce, juniper, hemlock, and white
bark pine.
Though a part of the State's resources in timber is
perhaps permanently inaccessible and though a more con-
siderable part must remain beyond reach for a long time
to come, the lumber industry is of almost indispensable
value to the State and especially to certain sections in
the north. It is most unfortunate, therefore, that millions
of acres in private hands are being denuded and sold as
logged-off lands, because these depleted regions are for
the most part valueless as agricultural land not only on
account of a too-acid soil but also because most of the
areas are too mountainous. "The best available informa-
tion at hand would indicate that all told probably not more
than a million acres of additional land can be developed
out of the forest areas in North Idaho. "^ Nor is that all:
these denuded and valueless areas offer extremely diffi-
cult problems because of soil erosion and the destruction
of watersheds. "If all the forest lands of the State were
under high-class management, the lumber industry could
not only be sustained in its present volume, but could
doubtless be appreciably increased."- At the present rate
of depletion, the private stands will be exhausted within
thirty years, and the more valuable species long before
that. In addition to the exhaustion by private interests,
huge losses are delivered from fire and insects, and these
ravages are sometimes of epidemic proportions. Fire and
1 Idaho Forest and Timber Handbook.
2 Ibid.
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RESOURCES AND PRODUCTS 171
insects may eventually be controlled. The reforestation
of barren lands must depend on Idaho vision and initia-
tive, and especially on the leadership in towns that will
take their place among the ghosts if the industry which
chiefly supports them is not to be sustained.
The annual lumber cut in the State is about a billion
board feet, of which the two pines furnish about 68 per
cent and the larch and Douglas fir about 21 per cent.
There are about three hundred mills, but 93 per cent of
the lumber is sawed by twenty-seven, of which the one at
Lewiston is at present perhaps the second largest in the
world. Besides lumber, rough and finished, the production
is heavy in mine timbers and ties, lath, and shingles.
Minerals: Idaho is twelfth in production of minerals
with an annual output of more than thirty millions of
dollars, falling chiefly on lead, silver, gold, zinc, and cop-
per in the order as given. The approximate total value of
the metals mined in the State since 1860 is $1,300,000,000.
Its mineral resources cover a wide range: it has fifteen
metallic and twenty-three nonmetallic minerals which
occur in quantities sufl^icient to be regarded as exploitable
assets, and these are to be found in thirty-five of the
forty-four counties. If valuable clays are included, then
possibly every county in the State possesses substantial
mineral wealth.^
The production of minerals in Idaho has in all sectors
except the Coeur d'Alene been governed primarily by the
discovery of ore and only secondarily by such factors as
price and demand. In most areas the quantity of work-
able ore found in any one productive period has been
small, and at present only silver and lead of the ferrous
minerals are of importance or seem likely to be in the
immediate future. The richest area at present is the
Coeur d'Alene in Shoshone County far up in the Pan-
handle. The deposits here are found in a comparatively
small region in the drainage basin of the South Fork of
1 Rush J. White, The Mineral Resources of Idaho.
172 IDAHO
the Coeur d'Alene River. The ores are fine grained and
intimately mixed, and about forty-five species have been
recognized. Lead and silver have been increasingly pro-
ductive ; and though copper here at one time yielded huge
revenues, it is now only a minor product from the silver-
lead ores. Recently, large zinc mines have been opened,
and this metal promises to be of considerable importance.
Lemhi County is knoM^n to have large deposits of valuable
ores, but the nearest railway station is far distant from
many of these. Idaho County in the lower part of the
Panhandle, Valley County just south of it, and Owyhee
County in the extreme southwestern part of the State are
known to be very rich in minerals. All of these, however,
are far removed from railway and truck lines, and exploi-
tation will be indefinitely delayed.
Gold is found in most of the counties and is one of the
most widely distributed of the metals. Idaho now ranks
only seventh in gold production because during the War
many of its mines were closed and have not been re-
opened. In the Clearwater Mountains of northern Idaho,
placer mining has yielded about fifty millions of dollars,
and prospects here are favorable to future production in
large-scale operation of low-grade deposits. Near here, in
the Orofino district, gold is found in veins, but has not
been developed because of the uncertainty in regard to
geologic shifts. Near Florence there are at least seven
gold veins of importance, but want of transportation has
delayed development. And elsewhere in the State rich
veins are known or suspected, but gold mining save as a
by-product will have to wait on transportation and a more
definite knowledge of the geology of the underlying re-
gions. This is especially true of the Middle Fork of the
Salmon River area, which some mining specialists have
declared to be probably the greatest potential undeveloped
gold area in the world.
Idaho ranked first in production of silver in the United
States in 1934, and the largest producer of silver in the
Nation today is the Sunshine Mine in Shoshone County.
RESOURCES AND PRODUCTS 173
This is the richest area, but there are others of unusual
promise. The Alturas Quadrangle on the western slope of
the Sawtooth Range needs further investigation by geolo-
gists and engineers. Large deposits, and especially of
low-grade ore, are believed to lie in the Vienna District in
the Sawtooth National Forest.
In production of lead, Idaho ranks next to Missouri
and turns out one fourth of the total in the United States.
Its annual output is about three hundred million pounds,
or approximately enough for the automobile industry in
an average year. In Shoshone County are the three
largest individual lead mines in the country: the Bunker
Hill and Sullivan, the Morning, and the Hecla. Most of
the unexploited lead deposits are in the Panhandle,
though in Lemhi County there are large veins which show
evidence of continuity, and there may be valuable deposits
in the southeastern corner of the State.
Idaho now ranks about tenth in production of copper,
but huge untouched deposits suggest that within the State
this metal may increase in importance. Most of the cop-
per ore here is relatively rich in gold or silver or both, and
in some instances, notably in Custer and Bonner Counties,
the silver content exceeds that of the copper in value.
Because of the surplus now on the world's market, most
of the copper mines in Idaho are idle. Chief producer
is Copper Giant in the Panhandle on the south slope of
Howie Mountain, and the principal untouched deposits
seem to be in the Seven Devils area. This area runs for
a hundred and twenty miles and varies in width from two
to forty ; and copper Kes throughout. The development of
this region is remote.
The chief coal deposits seem to be in the Teton Basin
of eastern Idaho. The chemical analysis of the coal here
reveals it to be equal in quality to that mined and shipped
into the State from Utah and Wyoming, but geologic
faults have discouraged operations. Bituminous coal of
commercial importance has also been found in Bonneville,
Fremont, and Clark Counties. Boise and Owyhee Coun-
174 IDAHO
ties have beds of low-grade lignite, but except for a little
trucking out to local markets, no attempt has been made
to exploit coal in Idaho.
Idaho's greatest mineral wealth probably lies in its
enormous deposits of phosphate rock in eastern and
southeastern areas. The reserves here are greater than
those known to exist in any other part of the world. They
underlie 268,000 acres and constitute 85 per cent of the
phosphate wealth of the United States. The beds in Idaho
and Utah, Wyoming and Montana, all contiguous, are
estimated to exceed six billions of tons of high-grade
deposit, of which five sixths are in Idaho. The only ex-
ploiter at the present time of any importance is the Ana-
conda Copper Mining Company, which ships the raw rock
to Montana and treats it with sulphuric acid and sells the
finished product at a price which is prohibitive to nearly
all farmers. At the present mine price for the rock, Idaho
has more wealth in its phosphate beds than in all the
other minerals produced in the State during the last
seventy years, multiplied by ten. Development here will
have to wait on the exhaustion of beds in Florida and
Tennessee, but meanwhile the State's leadership has been
urged to move in every possible way to protect its interest
in these fields.
There are huge limestone, sandstone, and shale deposits
in Bannock County which are being used in the manufac-
ture of cement. Near Boise there is an almost incalculable
reserve in sandstone of a quality unusually well adapted
to quarrying and building, and in the six western counties
are vast beds of diatomaceous earth, valuable in the man-
ufacture of brick and insulation. Various parts of the
State are rich in clays of decomposed granitic stone, and
in the Clearwater area are the finest fire clays in the
West. Extensive asbestos deposits are found in Idaho
County; graphite in commercial quantities is known to
exist, notably in Blaine County; and in northern Idaho
County, talc is found in significant abundance. All of
these, like the salt beds in southeastern Idaho, remain
RESOURCES AND PRODUCTS 175
undeveloped because of prohibitive freight rates. Idaho
also has deposits of antimony, arsenic, tungsten, cobalt,
and nickel, and some of the highest-grade deposits of
barytes v^est of the Mississippi. There are deposits of
feldspar in northern Idaho, of monazite in the southw^est,
and of sulphur in the southeast. In Central Idaho on
Meadow Creek, the red cinnabar is so abundant that over
a fairly large area any shovelful of earth will yield mer-
cury, but the deposits are low-grade and not commercially
profitable at this time. Bentonite occurs in exploitable
quantities in southeastern Idaho, and various bodies of
iron ore remain untouched.
Although structures occur which presumably would
be satisfactory, sedimentary formations are practically
all of nonmarine origin, and there are no authentic in-
stances in which petroleum has been found in fresh-water
formations. The outlook, on the whole, for commercial
bodies of petroleum in Idaho seems to be unfavorable,
though there has been considerable drilling near Driggs
and near Weiser. In the latter vicinity, a little gas was
found but no oil.
Gems: Semiprecious stones, often of unusual quality,
are to be found in nearly all parts of the State. Agate,
jasper, and opal, as well as agatized and opalized woods,
are in the lava flows of the southern part; sapphires,
rubies, and garnets are in the central and western parts ;
and beautiful opals of gem fineness are in the Columbia
lavas of the north.
Jasper, often closely resembling bloodstone, and rang-
ing in color through green, red, and purple, is to be had
in Ada County within a half mile of Boise. The western
part of Owyhee County yields jasper of similar quality
together with agates of all types and colors. In this coun-
ty, too, are rich two-toned green quartz plasma, fine clear
rock crystals, and agatized wood ; but this area has been
chiefly one of opals. In 1893 from one opal mine were
taken seven thousand carats in the rough, and the ragged
hills upon Snake River are still a favorite with opal
176 IDAHO
hunters. In Gem County, appropriately named, are lovely
fire opals in the lava of Squaw Butte about five miles east
of Emmett. Close by these are water agates of pale blue.
On Willow Creek, about halfway between Boise and Em-
mett, is a deposit of agatized and opalized wood of excel-
lent quality, and farther up the creek opal varying in
color from deep red through salmon pink to white out-
crops over an area of approximately thirty acres.
In Washington County are agates of many colors,
some of which when cut into thin layers show a rainbow
iridescence. On Mann Creek, northeast of Weiser, is a
deposit of silicified wood of bright yellow color that re-
sembles natural oak. It is extremely hard and free from
flaws, and takes a beautiful luster under polishing. Adams
County has sapphires, a few rubies, and many fine pink
garnets in the area of Rock Flat near New Meadows.
Flawless blood-red rubies have been found here which
weighed two carats after they were cut and polished. The
garnets here are chiefly pink, but some either green or
deep red have been found in the Seven Devils region west-
ward. Over in the center of Idaho between the Salmon
and Lost Rivers is a gem hunter's paradise. At many
places in the upper Lost River Valley transparent quartz
crystals seam the geodes which have weathered out of the
lava. Scattered over the whole area are agates of every
kind known ; and red, yellow, or green jasper is abundant.
Near the East Fork of the Salmon is a beautiful variety
of quartz in alternate layers of blood-red sard and white-
and-brown onyx. Near Challis is a deposit of rich black
limestone containing coral that takes a high white polish.
South of Challis are said to be the best specimens of
mordenite known.
And these summarized here are only some of the
larger gem fields. There is amethyst near Hailey: opals
and opalized wood in Lincoln and Gooding Counties ; fire
opal near Moscow in Latah County ; and the large White
Bird fossil deposit in Idaho County in which maple leaves
fourteen inches in diameter have been found. Persons in-
STATE OF IDAHO
MAP or
PRODUCTS
1930
AGRICULTURE TOTAL 86Q527.O00
BV C0UNTIC5-ESTIMATE 1935
WHEAT-20lbeOOOBU~|l4inOOO C BEAWS-I 306 000 BU—| 3 069 000
CORN-l 55aOOOBU--ftl 168 000
COMMERCIAL P»0DOCE-- $ 94d 000
ALFALFA Se£D-93 6O06U--t796 0iyj
LFALFA-ALL-? 249 COOT- -tl4 &<t3000|
ROPS --|4 851 000 J ...
S'OOOT--J2 833 000 K PEAS-f 666 OOOBU- -» 2 249 000
POTATOES-17 H00000BU--i9790000 L HONEY- 3 000 OOOLB- - $ 2 500 000
LIVESTOCK CENSUS TOTAL $ 50,265.000
ORStS-MULES-i
POULTRY-2 I 70 DOOM-- $998 000
EGGS PRODUCED-ieeOOOOOO— 12 3b'
TOTALS I2.I7IJ82
ESTIMATt 1935
M1LK-I4 69e 732LS~| 734938
V-ICE-CREAM--664 936GAL- $56493!
TOTAL Sli. 754,908 .
estimate: 1934
N&LES--6 399 OOO LATM-- 520 799 0O0O0O FT B M ^UMBER
METALLIC MINES TOTAL $19,453,700
4 817 0C
V
? ;00 000 LB-- I42 648 216LB— 59 6O0000Le
$2 933 000 $7 490 700 $176400 $5277964 $2741600
NON-METALLIC MINES PRODUCTS
BY COUNTIES 1936
1^ COAL Df ATOMACEOUS Q EARTH SANDSTONE
P LIMESTONE PHOSPHATE^^ ROCK CLAY DEPOSITS
gL FLOUR MILLStt24 HYDROELEC PLANTS Ji65
BY LOCA-'ION 1936 ESTIMATE
2OOOO00 6BL-9 200 OOC
kJ CANNERIES** 12
BY LOCATION 1936 ut LUt-ftiiUN i»JO
^^WATER STORAGE RESERVOIRS— IRRIG.fi. POWER tt^ 6^
^*'^-)VERrO00O ACRE rEET--BY LOCATION -- l 9 3 6- -TOTAL STORAGE-4 6565.X *
LEGEND
V f COUNCIL ^ ,
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WOGGsiS'l^
I N E
. _INCOLN
fy
SHOSHONE _
ML feil^^''"^
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J- - 2^__ _ _^^ ll \3iX SM^ _ 1 ® __
FALLS
iWERjv"f
IPOV^ER
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I-L-* 0\, \ VGHKLOc
RESOURCES AND PRODUCTS 177
terested in exploration or in further knowledge should
seek the officials of the Idaho Gem Club in Boise.
Exports: A picture of what a State has in resources
can be given in its exports. Of agricultural products, hay-
is first in value, but nearly all of it is fed within the State.
Of livestock in 1934, a subaverage year, the exports were
about 200 carloads of horses and mules, 4,000 of cattle,
5,000 of sheep, and 1,500 of hogs. Idaho is fifth in produc-
tion of wool. Next to hay is wheat, of which a large part
is milled within the State. Of an average production of
22,000,000 bushels, 8,997 cars were shipped out in 1934.
Of potatoes, the average annual shipment is about 30,000
cars. Sugar beets are next but very few of these are
shipped. The State's average production of these is about
4,500 cars or about 5 per cent of the total output for the
United States. Beans, a crop coming rapidly into favor, is
next in value and is 13 per cent of the Nation's total of
the white bean production and together with peas run to
about 3,600 cars annually. Apples come next with 3,500
cars, and after them come barley, oats, and corn in turn,
though most of these are consumed within the State.
Alfalfa seed is next. For years Idaho won on an average
more than 45 per cent of all the prizes offered at the Chi-
cago seed shows, and its Grimm alfalfa seed is now
shipped to many parts of the world. Of the remaining
agricultural products, lettuce is of importance with about
300 cars annually, onions with nearly 3,000 cars, celery
with 100, cherries with from 100 to 200, prunes with
about 3,000, peaches with 300, and miscellaneous fruits
and vegetables in smaller quantities. Of dairy products,
the State exports annually about 8,000,000 pounds of
cheese, the same quantity of condensed milk, and the bulk
of nearly 30,000,000 pounds of butter.
The export of mining products varies considerably.
In 1934 Idaho shipped about $15,000,000 of silver and
lead and minor metals, and 737 carloads of phosphate
rock. Of timber in the same year, it shipped 11,678 cars
178 IDAHO
of logs, 1,297 of fuel, 110 of ties, 379 of pulpwood, 9,502
of lumber, shingles, and lath, and 357 of boxes and crates.
Some notion of the fertility of the State's cultivable
land can be gathered from the following statistics from
the U. S. Yearbook of Agriculture. Some of these are
based on a five-year average and others on a single year
that was regarded as typical. Idaho is first among the
States in per-acre yield in beans, peas, and clover seed;
second in alfalfa seed and potatoes; third in wheat, hay,
and apples ; fourth in barley ; sixth in sugar beets, eighth
in oats, and tenth in corn. In corn it is first in acre-yield
of all States west of the Mississippi. A notion of its com-
paratively small productive area can be had from the fact
that in potatoes it ranks second in yield but seventh in
production; in beans first in yield and fourth in produc-
tion; in clover seed first in yield, ninth in acreage, and
fifth in production ; and in hay, its principal crop, third in
yield, sixth in acreage, but second in total (1935) valua-
tion. Of peas and clover seed, for both of which it has
small areas only, it is first in production and yield.
Imports: A picture of what a State does not have in
resources can be given in its imports. In general, inas-
much as Idaho is not an industrial area, its imports are
chiefiy manufactured goods, with 16,350 carloads un-
loaded in 1934. Petroleum products amounted to 7,612
cars. In spite of its own cement factories, it imported 13
per cent of its consumption in this item. Other large im-
ports were hardware of all kinds, including 75 carloads of
tractors, 44 of wagons, and 16 of other agricultural im-
plements; 500 cars of canned goods, 130 of soap, 104 of
beverages, 116 of lime, and 500,000 tons of coal. Idaho
is one of the few States in the Union that spends more for
automobiles than for food.
Summary: In regard to its resources, Idaho is in
large part an undeveloped State. Vast sums, it is true,
have been taken from its earth in mineral wealth and
from its forests in manufactured products; but more
minerals doubtless remain hidden than have ever been
RESOURCES AND PRODUCTS 179
touched, and much more timber will remain inaccessible
than has ever been logged. Agriculturally, it can never
hope to be more than a minor producer, even if all its
cultivable land is eventually brought under water and its
northern logged-off areas are tilled. In dairying it can
continue to grow, but in livestock it may remain indefi-
nitely on a low-profit basis. Because of huge deposits of
minerals in other parts of the world closer to cheap trans-
portation, its future in mining cannot reasonably expect
to exceed its past. It would seem, therefore, that Idaho's
greatest development in the future must rest upon its
potential wealth as a national playground. In this re-
spect its development has hardly started and its resources
are almost second to none.
IX
EMERGING FROM THE FRONTIER
Idaho is still so close to the frontier that its
social development is still for the most part in its
formative stages. A detailed account of the be-
ginnings as well as of the results achieved ivill he
found in the Idaho Atlas and Encyclopedia.
Within the limits of this book there can be sum-
marized only a few items that are especially
relevant to a guide or of more lively interest to
persons unfamiliar ivith the State.
CANAQ
STATE OF IDAHO
MAPOF
TRANSPORTATION
1936
LEGEND
|[[^^]J= FEDERAL HIGHWAYS
^^l^PAVED GFIAVEL HIGHWAYS
(~W-STATE HIGHWAYS
GRADED COUNTY ROADS
RILEY TOCLKO
NEVADA 'JTAH^
IX
EMERGING FROM THE FRONTIER
TRANSPORTATION: Transportation problems in
Idaho in comparison with those in most of the other
States are unusually difficult. The northern part of the
State is remote, with natural barriers, both river and
mountain, intervening, and in consequence is still inac-
cessible within Idaho except by highway. Difficulties have
arisen, too, out of the fact that the most important railway
artery was laid more than a half century ago at a time
when the Snake River Valley, down which for the most
part it takes its way, was unclaimed by irrigation and un-
settled. In southern Idaho, cities have grown at a con-
siderable distance from the main line, and the Twin Falls
area is still served only by a branch.
In 1929 Idaho had six airports of a sort. Today it has
sixty-seven, thirty-three of which are municipal. The
National Parks Airways and the United Airlines Trans-
port are the two chief intrastate lines, and operate as
feeders from main routes. The former serves between
Great Falls, Montana, and Salt Lake City, Utah, and
crosses eastern Idaho with service during season to West
Yellowstone. The latter serves between Salt Lake City
and Seattle. The Panhandle is crossed, of course, by any
lines serving westward from Montana to the coast.
Within the State during the winter there is a great deal
of airline freight service to snowbound towns.
Because so many of Idaho's towns are off the main
railway arteries, transportation by motor coach and
184 IDAHO
freighting by truck have developed rapidly in recent
years. At present there are licensed to operate within
the State twenty-three passenger lines, seven of which
are intrastate, and ninety-eight truck lines, of which
thirty are intrastate. Eight per cent of the State's popu-
lation and one fourth of its area are not served in any
degree by railways, but nearly every town and village in
the State is now served by bus and truck systems.
Although Idaho is twelfth in size it is only forty-first in
valuation and forty-third in population. Of its 83,354
square miles, more than three fourth is held in forests,
parks, and State lands, with less than 24 per cent accessible
to taxation. With such considerable handicaps, it is small
wonder that the State had as late as 1919 only 5 miles of
paved road and only 108 that were surfaced. Today it has
more than 1,800 miles of paved or oiled road, more than
1,600 that are of crushed rock or gravel, and nearly 600
that are graded. Of Idaho's 4,800 miles of roadway, less
than 800 remain unimproved.
There are five main highway arteries, of which the
most important is U S 30, entering in the southeast
from Wyoming and entirely traversing the southern part
of the State to connect at Weiser with Oregon lines going
to Eugene or Portland. U S 91 and 191 cross the eastern
part of the State and together are the main-traveled route
between Salt Lake City and either West Yellowstone or
Butte. Branch lines off this artery are the only ap-
proaches to the southern entrance of Yellowstone Park
and to the Grand Teton National Park. U S 95 is the
only complete north-south highway in the State: its
southern terminal is Weiser and the end (in Idaho) of
U S 30, and its northern terminal is the Canadian
boundary. Across the northern part of the State are U S
10 and State 3 and U S 195. All of these highways
connect western Montana cities with Spokane. U S 93,
the western transcontinental artery between Canada and
Mexico, almost exactly bisects that part of Idaho lying
south of the Salmon River.
EMERGING FROM THE FRONTIER 185
In 1935 there were 2,946 miles of railway track in
Idaho, owned by 13 systems and their 62 branch lines.
By far the most important of these, the Union Pacific,
serves practically all of Idaho except the Panhandle. The
northern part is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St.
Paul and Pacific, the Great Northern, the Northern Pa-
cific, and the Spokane International.
The streams of Idaho are not navigable save in some
degree in the northern part. The Kootenai River in the
extreme north is navigable between Nelson in British
Columbia and Bonners Ferry, with both freight and
passenger boats serving between these points. Pend d*
Oreille River is navigable between Clark Fork and Albini
Falls at Newport. From Sandpoint boats operate up the
river to Priest Lake and from there up Priest River to the
upper Priest Lake. Upon Pend d'Oreille Lake, with a
length of sixty miles and an extreme width of twenty,
there are both passenger and freight boats. Upon Lake
Coeur d'Alene, with extreme dimensions of twenty-two
miles by eight, there are boats of many kinds; and the
Coeur d'Alene River is navigable for twenty miles be-
tween Harrison and Cataldo. Lewiston is known as
Idaho's only "seaport." Both freight and passenger lines
come up the Columbia and then up the Snake to Lewiston ;
and upstream from the city motor launches carry sight-
seers and supplies to the famous Box Canyon.
Racial Elements: Because Idaho is not an urban
State (more than 315,000 of its 445,000 persons live on
farms), it has no cities, like most of the States, to which
immigrants are attracted. Its population is chiefly trans-
planted native American stock from the Eastern and
Middle Western States, and today, in consequence, only
a relatively small percentage of its people are segregated
into colonies. In the State's early years of settlement, of
foreign-born stock only Chinese apparently came in ap-
preciable numbers, and such prohibitions and persecu-
186 IDAHO
tions were laid upon these that practically all of them
disappeared or were exterminated.
According to the figures of the 1930 census, of for-
eign-born persons or those of recent foreign extraction,
the greatest number in the State is of Scandinavian stock,
though of the 28,000 Scandinavians, the majority seems
to have come from Minnesota and Wisconsin. In the for-
eign-born category there are about 20,000 English, be-
tween 17,000 and 18,000 Germans, and almost 14,000
Canadians. Next in order in this category, but in con-
siderably smaller numbers, are the Scotch, with 4,991;
the Swiss, with 4,220; and the Irish, with 4,003. There
are 3,730 Russians, 2,737 Italians, 2,689 Welsh, 2,128
Spaniards, 1,421 Japanese, and 1,278 Mexicans. Indians
number 3,638, nearly all of whom are on reservations.
The Negro population (as of 1930) was very small, with
only 668. Pocatello has a small Negro colony. Of the
Chinese, once so abundant, there were only 355 recorded ;
and of Filipinos there were only 97 ; of Koreans, only 21 ;
of Hindus, only 7 ; and of Hawaiians, only 5.
In the eight largest cities, the native white population
varies from 86.7 per cent in Coeur d'Alene to 95.8 per
cent in Caldwell; the nonnative white residents of these
cities are almost entirely foreign-born. Of the 30,454
foreign-born white persons in the State, 71 per cent
have been naturalized. Twenty-six and three-tenths per
cent of the total population is foreign white stock, of
which 75 per cent is native white with one or both par-
ents foreign-born. In northern Idaho, there are very few
Negroes or Orientals among the foreign-born, but in
southern Idaho, as in Pocatello, most of this population
component is Mexicans and Chinese. Nowhere in Idaho is
there a large foreign section.
Of the 3,890 Indians in Idaho (the figures are for
1933), only 574 were not on reservations. These live
chiefly in cities and towns near the reservations, and it
perhaps ought to be noted, in this respect, that Indians
EMERGING FROM THE FRONTIER 187
like Negroes are classified as racially intact even though
they may be largely white. Many Chinese came to Idaho
in early days to work the placer mines. As placer mining
declined, those who were not driven out went into laun-
dries or truck gardening. There is a small Chinese colony
in Boise today, and an old Chinese temple which is still
used ; but in the remainder of Idaho there seems to be no
colony nor more than 250 Chinese. Though the Scotch in
Idaho are largely assimilated, the native stock in Boise
is still so strong that the birthday of Burns is celebrated.
But the largest, and by far the most significant, colony
in Idaho is that of the Basques in Boise, said to be the
second in size in the world. It is a misnomer, of course,
to call this one a foreign colony. Many of the Basques of
Spain, after efforts to translate them into good Castilians
had failed, took to the sea, and some of them arrived on
the western coast of the United States. Because they
were highlanders, they ventured inland, seeking the
mountains, and one body of them established a colony
at Jordan Valley, Oregon, more than half a century ago.
After the coming of the sheep industry to eastern Oregon
and southern Idaho, the center of the colony drifted to
Boise, and these people now number about 7,000 in the
State, with 1,500 of them in Boise itself. Loving solitude
and the hills, the early Basque men here became shep-
herds, though a few of them came after awhile to be
persons of wealth and leadership in their own right.
The Basques are known as a devout and proud and
conservative people. Aloof rather than gregarious, they
still preserve in Boise the outlines of their native culture
and customs, though less exclusive very recently than they
used to be. They have yielded their native dress but their
chief game, Jai-alai or handball, is still their own, and
admission to their special functions is still by invitation
only. On Grove Street is their DeLamar Hotel, a hostelry
popular with the colony. Formerly they had a resident
priest but now they attend St. John's Cathedral.
188
IDAHO
Education: Idaho is a large State with a small popu-
lation, and in consequence its progress in education has
been slow. Today it has a university with a southern
branch, 2 normal schools for the training of teachers, 4
senior and 3 junior colleges, and 195 high schools of
which 33 are in class A independent districts. About
145,000 persons, or one third of the population of the
State, annually attend the elementary and high schools.
The State's educational system is controlled by county
superintendents, the State Superintendent of Public In-
struction, the State Board of Education, and the Board of
Regents. Boise, Emmett, and Lewiston have special char-
ters which make their districts independent of the con-
trol of the State Board. In 1933 legislation provided for
equitable distribution of school funds, and placed Idaho
in this respect with New York and Missouri.
Inasmuch as the State has no large population centers,
its high schools are small and widely scattered. There
are 195 units with 30,000 pupils. Of these 195 accredited
high schools, only one has more than 1,600 students,
while over 80 per cent of them have fewer than 200 stu-
dents, and 62 per cent have fewer than 100. At a time
when Idaho was more prosperous than it is today, every
community with a half-dozen families thought it ought
to have a high school, and in consequence these that mush-
roomed out of misguided civic pride overnight are today
hanging precariously to their life. Idaho needs few
things more urgently than a farsighted consolidation of
its school districts. Among the high schools are seven
which are maintained by churches: the Greenleaf
Academy at Greenleaf, the Northwest Nazarene Academy
at Nampa, the Ursuline Academy at Moscow, St. Teresa's
Academy at Boise, the Academy of Immaculate Heart of
Mary at Coeur d'Alene, Our Lady of Lourdes Academy at
Wallace, and St. Gertrude's High School at Cottonwood.
The State university at Moscow, founded in 1892, had
no more than five hundred students as late as 1916, but
has grown so rapidly in recent years that nearly every-
EMERGING FROM THE FRONTIER 189
thing except the fir trees has been used for laboratory or
classroom. The buildings were intended to accommodate
a few hundred students, and today the enrollment is above
three thousand. The students are crowded, the faculty
is overworked, and the enrollment is rapidly increasing;
but the solution seems as remote as ever. As the situation
stands now, Moscow and northern Idaho are fighting for
urgently needed buildings and facilities to take care of
a rapidly growing student body, and Pocatello and south-
ern Idaho are fighting to make the Southern Branch a
four-year college in its own right. Idaho is too poor to
support one campus as it ought to be ; and in addition to a
divided university it has two normal schools, each sur-
viving under rather threadbare circumstances. Knowing
how bitter sectionalism can be, some Idahoans shrug and
predict that Idaho will persist until it has a college or
university in every principal city even though taxes mount
until they precisely equal the gross income.
The northern unit maintains fifteen departments, of
which agriculture, engineering, forestry, and mines are
outstanding. It also embraces experimental farms at
Moscow, Sandpoint, Caldwell, and Tetonia; field labora-
tories at Boise, Twin Falls, and Parma ; agricultural and
home economic extension offices in Boise, Pocatello, Bur-
ley, Rupert, and Moscow; and a wide range of public
service which touches all the industries and professions
of the State. The Southern Branch at Pocatello became an
integral part of it in 1927, and now has an enrollment of
about six hundred students. It is only a junior college
except in its school of pharmacy, in which its greatest
strength lies. The two normal schools, one at Lewiston
and the other at Albion, have about six hundred students
between them.
The Industrial Training School was established in St.
Anthony in 1903, and now provides training and super-
vision for nearly two hundred boys and girls annually.
This school seems to have been fortunate in its leader-
ship, and is in consequence one today of which the State
190 IDAHO
can be not unreasonably proud. The school for the deaf
and blind was finally placed in Gooding in 1910. Though
it cares for more than a hundred persons, its buildings are
so congested and its facilities so inadequate that it has a
long waiting list of applicants who must remain indefi-
nitely without care. In Caldwell is the College of Idaho,
in Gooding is Gooding College, and in Nampa is the
Northwest Nazarene College. All are accredited four-year
schools. The last, supported and controlled by the Naza-
rene Church, is the only one of its kind in the Northwest.
There are junior colleges in Boise, Rexburg, and Coeur
d'Alene.
In the emphasis it has placed on education, in its scorn
of iUiteracy, and in its resourcefulness in stretching dol-
lars to their farthest reach, Idaho has been educationally
progressive. It is still one of the most backward States
in the care it gives to those unfortunates who do not fall
within the normal curriculum. In progressive Eastern
States the less extreme cases of emotional instability are
not incarcerated until efforts have been made to restore
them to serviceable citizenship ; but Idaho is a young State
and has not yet got around to a more charitable and en-
lightened view of its neurotic persons.
Paleontologij : In 1928 Dr. H. T. Stearns of the United
States Geological Survey sent to the National Museum a
small collection of fossil bones which had been taken from
Snake River Valley, and an examination of these led to
one of the important discoveries in the field of vertebrate
paleontology of recent years. The Smithsonian Institution
organized an expedition under J. W. Gidley to study the
area, and after several prospects were studied a field
party was sent out, including C. P. Singleton, discoverer
of the Pleistocene fossil region at Melbourne, Florida.
Three tons of fossils were unearthed by the expedition.
Fauna represented by bones of uncommon size proved
to be of unusual interest. Two kinds of bison existed
in Pleistocene time: one was much like the beast of the
EMERGING FROM THE FRONTIER 191
present, but the other much overtopped it in size and in
development of horns. These were about two feet long
and more than six inches in diameter at their base. It is
conjectured that they must have had a spread of not
fewer than seven feet. Even so, this huge fellow was not
undisputed master of the plains : roaming with him was
a great musk-ox sort of an animal which exceeded in size
by thrice his bulk the living musk ox of the North coun-
try. There were, too, large herds of mammoths and mas-
todons which were more enormous by far than their
living relatives, the elephants of Africa and India. Be-
sides these, there were big heavy ground sloths, related
to the present tree sloth of South America; camels ex-
ceeding those of the Old World in length of limb and
neck; and horses and bears. Among smaller animals re-
corded here in remnants were wolves, coyotes, gophers,
and hares.
Results of the expedition were so gratifying that it
was continued another season. Resuming work about five
miles from Hagerman, the scientists discovered the bone
deposits of hundreds of animals, a large part of which
belong to an extinct species of horse. This spot was ap-
parently once a boggy terrain, possibly a drinking place.
The bones are so disarticulated, intermingled, and scat-
tered that they suggest a slow accumulation over many
years rather than the sudden overwhelming of a herd in
one catastrophe. Among the deposits, too, are remains of
fish, frogs, swamp turtles, beavers, as well as an abund-
ance of vegetation. But the principal yield was the re-
mains of a hitherto unknown species of horse belonging to
the rare genus Plesipptts, a beast intermediate between
the Pleistocene horses and three-toed forebears of a more
ancient time. Three or four skeletons were almost com-
pletely restored.
Other remnants uncovered were of beaver, otter,
mastodon, peccary, rodent, frog, swamp turtle, and fish.
There were also extinct species of mammals, including
cats, sloth, and two species of camel. Their age seems
192 IDAHO
to be Upper Pliocene. In 1932 an expedition spent two
months in this vicinity and exposed a portion of bone-
bearing layers of five thousand square feet, which are
declared to be the largest accumulation of fossil horse re-
mains ever discovered. Turned up this time were five
more or less complete skeletons, thirty-two skulls, and
forty-eight pairs of lower jaws. Many of the deposits were
taken out in large blocks of several hundred pounds each.
Still another expedition came in 1934, but the quarry had
caved in. To open the deposit, dynamite was used, and the
charge blew out a mastodon skull from a level considerably
above that of the horse bones. This expedition gave the
name of Plesippus Shoshonensis Gidley to the new species
of horse.
Of petrified trees, the most unusual deposit found in
Idaho is in a wall of basalt on Santa Creek six miles north
of Emida. The ends of the carbonized logs can be seen
in the black lava near the water's edge. These are the
remains of a dense forest that grew in Miocene time when
possibly two hundred thousand square miles of the Pacific
Northwest were buried by lava flows to a depth varying
from a few to more than five thousand feet. The trees here
were so completely and quickly buried that air was ex-
cluded and the wood was transformed into high-grade
charcoal, with growth rings, medullary rays, and the mi-
nutest cell structures perfectly preserved. These logs are
extinct species of oak, redwood, beech, and cypress, none
of which is native to this area at the present time. In the
lava fields near Idaho Falls was until recently a large juni-
per nearly seventeen hundred years old. A study of its al-
most perfect rings has yielded considerable information in
regard to the wet and dry cycles during its period of
growth.
__CANADA
KEY MAP
STATE OF IDAHO
SECTIONS -TOURS
INDEIX
us 191-91 SECTION I
tA TARGHee PASS TV IDAHO FALLS
IB lOAMOFALlS TO FRANKLIN Hi J ]
US 91 SECTION I
UONTANATOIOAHOFALLS 63 mUS
US 30 SECTIONS I nni
3A WYOMING TO PQCATELLO
3B POCATELLO rO^BOISE 269 MILES
122 MILES
-it MILES
72 MILES
GIBBONSPASS TO KCTCHUU z^i UILCS
CANADA TO LCmSTON
MONTANA TO tVASHINGTON 62 M/LSS
LEIGEND
STATE SECTIONAL DIVISIONS
US HIGHWAYS
PAVED-GRAVEL-GRADED HIGHWAYS
STATE HIGHWAYS
SECTION DIVIDING LINES
STATE BOUNDARY LINES
STATE CAPITAL
TOWNS WITH CONNECTING ROADS
OTHER HIGHWAY TOWNS
MILEAGE BETWEEN TOWNS
f^uTswi nrmuy
'nAAinw . — \ 5
NEVADA
UTAli
SECTION II
I
TOURS
Idaho's Major Points of Interest 195
Tour 1
Section a, U S 191, Montana Line to Idaho Falls 197
Section b, U S 91, Idaho Falls to Utah Line 210
Tour 2
U S 91, Montana Line to Idaho Falls 216
Tour 3
Section a, U S 30 N, Wyoming Line to Pocatello 218
Section b, U S 30 N and U S 30, Pocatello to Boise 230
Section c, U S 30, Boise to Weiser 253
Tour 4
State 27, Blackfoot to junction with U S 93, 2 m. south of
Challis 265
Tour 5
Section a, U S 93, Montana Line to Hailey 273
Section b, U S 93, Hailey to Nevada Line 285
Tour 6
State 15 and 44, New Meadows to Boise 293
Tour 7
Section a, U S 95, Canadian Line to Lewiston 300
Section b, U S 95, Lewiston to Weiser 308
Tour 8
State 9 and 7, Spalding to Grangeville 319
Tour 9
U S 95 Alt., Coeur d'Alene to Potlatch 325
Tour 10
U S 10, Montana Line to Washington Line 331
Tour 11
State 3 and U S 195, Montana Line to Washington Line 337
GENERAL INFORMATION FOR TOURISTS
Motor vehicle laws: Maximum speed 35 m. outside of restricted
areas. No nonresident license; but nonresidents remaining more than
sixty days must register. No fee. Spotlights not to exceed two
allowed. Hand signals must be used. On mountain highways no
coasting on downgrade is allowed; and right of way must be given to
traveler on upgrade. There is no State highway patrol.
Liquor laws: Alcoholic liquors can be legally purchased only from
State Liquor Stores or authorized special distributors. Purchaser
must have a permit (50c) which may be obtained in State Liquor
Stores; this is not transferable. It is illegal to open a package con-
taining liquor or to consume liquor (except beer) in a public place.
Beer of more than 4% alcohol by weight is illegal.
Poisonous insects, etc. : Though parts of Idaho lie in the tick fever
area, fatalities are very few, and most persons disregard the risk.
There are rattlesnakes in parts of the State, but this reptile is not in
general regarded as a menace. Of large wild animals there is none
that will attack a human being unprovoked.
Clothing: Warm clothing is desirable in the high mountainous
areas even in summer months.
Addresses of National Forest Headquarters: Boise Forest, Boise;
Caribou, Montpelier; Challis, Challis; Clearwater, Orofino; Coeur
d'Alene, Coeur d'Alene; Idaho, McCall; Kaniksu, Sandpoint; Mini-
doka, Burley; Nezperce, Grangeville; Payette, Boise; Salmon, Salmon
City; Sawtooth, Hailey; St. Joe, St. Maries; Targhee, St. Anthony;
Weiser, Weiser.
TOURS
IDAHO'S MAJOR POINTS OF INTEREST
THIS is a selected list of items and includes only those
which would be worth the time of anyone to see.
Following each is the tour number on which it is to be
found. See the key map.
I. Caves
a. Crystal Falls la
b. Minnetonka 3a
c. Formation 3a
d. Shoshone 5b
II. Canyons
a. Middle Snake River - - - 3b
b. Bruneau 3b
c. Seven Devils 7a
d. Salmon River 5a
e. Malad River - - - - - 3b
III. Areas
a. Primitive - - - - 5a; 3b; 6
b. Selway 8
c. Island Park la
d. Payette 6
e. Seven Devils 7b
f. Sawtooth 5a
g. Heyburn Park 7a
h. Priest Lake 11
IV. Springs
a. Soda 3a
b. Lava 3a
c. Big la
196 IDAHO
V. Lakes
a. Bear 3a
b. Sawtooth ------ 5a
c. Payette ------- 6
d. Coeur d'Alene 7a
e. Pend d'Oreille 11
f. Priest 11
VI. Waterfalls
a. Mesa la
. b. Twin - - 3b
c. Shoshone ------ 3b
d. Moyie - - 7a
VII. Rock Formations
a. Craters of the Moon - - . 4
b. Malad Gorge ----- 3b
c. Cassia City of Rocks - - - 3b
d. Gooding City of Rocks - - 5b
e. Balanced Rock ----- 3b
f. Crater Rings 3b
g. Jump Creek Canyon - - - 3c
h. Sucker Creek Canyon - - - 3c
VIII. Highway Engineering
a. Galena Summit - - - - 5a
b. French Creek Hill - - - - 7b
c. White Bird Hill ----- 7b
d. Winchester Hill - - - - 7b
6. Gilbert Hill ----- 8
f. Lewiston Hill ----- 7a
g. Fourth of July Canyon - - 10
STATE OF IDAHO
MAP OF
SECTION I
I93«
TOURS
STATE OF IDAHO
MAP OF
SECTIONS
I 936
TOURS
2
4
5 A
FEDERAL HIGHWAYS
STATE HIGHWAYS
■^H PAVED -GRAVEL
_^— DIRT- GRADED
=== CONNECTING ROADS
_aa STATE BOUNDARIES
E-— SECTION BOUNDARIES
^ COUNTY SEAT
() OTHER TOWNS
© POINTS OF INTEREST
-• -i LAKES
RIVERS - CREEKS
MOUNTAINS -PEAKS
SECTION JL
STATE OF IDAHO
MAP OF
SECTION H
1936
TOURS
3 B
LEGEND
a FEDERAL HIGHWAYS — — STATE BOUNDARY LINES
^.^ Zr Z SECTION BOUNDARIES
() STATE HIGHWAYS PARK BOUNDARIES
^ ' (^ COUNTY SEAT
■^ HIGHWAY-PAVE D-GRAVEL O OTHER TOWNS
^— HIGHWAY-DIRT-GRADED $ POINTS OF INTEREST
= CONNECTING ROADS -«tC^ R IV E RS- CR EE KS
H4^ MOUNTAINS- PEAKS g^J LA KES- RESERVOI RS
II
m
t »i
^%
\s
\ IT
tl
ll
.11
V ]
F M TARR
\
' RA
11 \ S '*'/0 ^o« DAM y CITY y f \ u
Bio S^ / "^ coosE cr/res ^|r' rocks/ J ^ u
PRIN G5 ^ ^— ^ 1 -* "
"TO WELLS
6IM
N E V A D A
TO TREMONTON ^
67 M
UTAH
STATE OF IDAHO
MAP OF
sECTioNnr
1936
F M TARR
NEVADA
LEGEND
L^ FEDERAL HIGHWAYS =^ CONNECTING ROADS
^•- STATE BOUNDARIES
S-=-= SECTION BOUNDARIES
^ BOISE - CAPITAL
(^ COUNTY SEATS
O OTHER TOWNS
^ POINTS OF INTEREST
NEVADA
\^_^ STATE HIGHWAYS
^^" PAVED - GRAVEL
•^^ DIRT- GRADED
^^JeJ RIVERS-CREEKS
i&V! MOUNTAINS- PEAKS
A«5
TOUR NO. 1
(West Yellowstone, Montana) — St. Anthony — Idaho Falls
—Pocatello— Preston— (Ogden, Utah). U S 191 and U S
91. Yellowstone Route.
Montana Line to Utah Line 244.9 m.
The Oregon Short Line of the Union Pacific System and
the air route of the National Parks Airways roughly paral-
lel U S 191 and U S 91. Union Pacific Stages follow U S
191 and U S 91 to Salt Lake City, Utah.
All types of accommodations along the highway, including
improved campsites ; usual price range.
Section a. Montana Line to Idaho Falls, 108 m.
U S 191 coming out of Montana enters Idaho over
Targhee Pass (7,078 alt.) 10 m. west of the western
gateway to Yellowstone Park and proceeds for almost
fifty miles through the heart of the Targhee National
Forest. This beautiful area of rivers and heavy timber
is one of the principal tourist regions of the State, and
this drive through Targhee Forest is one of the finest in
Idaho. The dense growth east or west of the highway is
chiefly lodgepole pine, though other trees of importance
in this forest are alpine and Douglas fir and Engelmann
spruce. In late spring and throughout the summer this
region is a continuous garden of wild flowers. Inasmuch
as the lower elevations are above six thousand feet, this
region is one of cool summers and of very deep winters,
with skiing often possible over the buildings. Though a
favorite with visitors from many parts of the world,
this northeastern corner of Idaho is still an excellent fish-
ing area. Its streams are annually stocked not only by
the State but also by several sportsmen's associations,
some of which have clubs here.
VALLEY VIEW RANCH 4 m. (L) is a group of cabins
on a mountainside that overlooks Henrys Lake in the west.
Meals are available here, and several cabins at very nominal
198 IDAHO
rates. Here, too, is the junction (R) with an unsurfaced
road that is a cut-off to southern Montana.
HENRYS LAKE stands among four mountain passes :
the Red Rock, the Reynolds, the Targhee, and the Boot
Jack. South of it is Sawtelle Peak. Lying upon distance
against a western range, it has been invested with many
a legend, and is chiefly interesting when viewed within its
background of folklore. Only five miles in length, it is fed
by innumerable rivulets that come out of the mountains
flanking it. This, one of the unusual spots in Idaho, is said
to be an interesting example of a remnant dating back
probably to Pliocene times when all of these valleys were
filled with water. Its mysterious floating and disappearing
islands, now largely restored to a somewhat mythical past,
were composed of spongy substance covered with grass,
and are said to have attracted the fancy of Chief Joseph of
the Nez Perces, who saw the working of a supernatural
agency in their changing forms. Legend declares, too, that
for many years Indians refused to explore these islands.
After awhile they resolved, with ingenious courage, to use
them as burial grounds inasmuch as they vanished "six
sleeps in each moon" and ought on that account to put any
ghost irrevocably beyond the reach of care. The Indians
decided (the tale is still largely legendary) that by the time
the erected scaffolds had sunk into the bogs, the soul of
a dead Indian would be safely within the happy eternities.
These islands became, in consequence, one of the strang-
est burial grounds of the world, and alternately vanished
and reappeared with their cargo of dead. Perhaps of
more importance today for those unaffected by legends
is the fact that fishing in the lake and its near-by streams
is unusually good and that ducks abound in the marshes.
A State hatchery is to be found at the northern end.
U S 191 now passes through a narrow valley and
enters the chief area of resorts. At 5 m. is the junction
with a trail.
Right on this trail is SAWTELLE PEAK, from which is visible most
of the Targhee Forest and a slice of southern Montana (for horse-
TOUR ONE 199
back trips to this peak, see Trudes Resort). This trail is 8 m. long.
On Mount Reynolds, west of Sawtelle Peak, are acres and acres of
marine fossils.
At 12 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Left on this road the BIG SPRINGS RESORT 5 m. (6,540 alt.)
compi-ises a central lodge, flanked by a number of cabins. No
other resort in this area stands upon so beautiful a site. BIG
SPRINGS, which are only a few yards from the Inn, are almost a
phenomenon in themselves. Gushing from the base of a mountain,
they are the source of the North Fork of Snake River, and pour out
such volume that a full-grown river is under way within a hundred
feet of the springs. The average flow of 185 second-feet never
varies in temperature from 52 degrees F. Upon the bottom of the
stream and visible from the bridge is an interesting flora, and upon
the mountains roundabout are lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, and
Engelmann spruce. A favorite pastime with visitors here is to
stand on the bridge and feed bread to the schools of rainbow trout.
During the summer an average of twenty loaves a day are bought
at the Inn for this purpose.
SACK'S CABIN (admission is free) across the springs from the
Inn, is a very remarkable lodgepole cabin. Built over a period of
years with painstaking care by a German carpenter creatively en-
dowed, it has attracted the interest of thousands of persons and filled
them all with wonder at what genius can do with logs and slabs and
a few simple tools. All the woodwork inside and all the furniture is
handmade and of most unusual craftsmanship.
From the Inn a road climbs 2 m. to BIG SPRINGS LOOKOUT
and a tower which affords an excellent view of the surrounding
country. The Targhee Forest maintains several public campgrounds
within its boundaries, and one of the best is here at Big Springs.
MACK'S INN 13 m. on U S 191 is the most famous re-
sort in this region. Popular with visitors from many parts
of the world and particularly with celebrities from Holly-
wood, it has a central unit of buildings comprising cafes,
stores, and a hotel, flanked on nearly every side by rows of
cabins. The North Fork of Snake River is its northern
boundary, and here from the bridge visitors again delight
in scattering bread to the fish. Just southwest (R) is an-
other public campground, and down the river below it are
summer homes. Across the river, both east and west, are
private clubs. Some of the cabins here are noteworthy in
their workmanship, but the most interesting feature of
this resort is perhaps the interior of the cafe.
200 IDAHO
TRUDE 16 m. (6,327 alt.) is on Elk Creek in the
Bitterroot Range. On the highway is the dance hall, and
set back from it are the main lodge and the cabins which
overlook a private lake in which is said to be the largest
eastern brook trout in the country. Swimming and boat-
ing are available here as well as fishing in private waters ;
and unlike the other resorts, Trude outfits for horse-
back and pack trips into adjacent areas, including Saw-
telle Peak and Yellowstone Park. This resort, like Mack's,
has been a favorite with a wealthy clientele.
POND'S LODGE 20 m. is on the Buffalo River and
has like the others, a central inn and a number of cabins.
The former lodge, which burned to the ground in 1935,
was notable for its interior rustic woodwork. Just N of
the resort (L) is the Buffalo public campground.
Left from Pond's Lodge a graded road leads to ISLAND PARK 4 m.
(6,290 alt.) and to natural campsites in a wilderness of evergreens.
From U S 191 a few miles S of Pond's, the Teton Peaks
are visible. The highway again enters a forested area, and
the gorge of the North Fork comes into view on the right.
At 39 m. is the junction with an unimproved road.
Right on this road are UPPER MESA FALLS 1 m., where unim-
proved campgrounds are available. This waterfall (sometimes called
the Big) has a vertical drop of 114 feet.i Unlike so many of the falls
in Idaho it has not been vitiated by reservoirs, and in consequence
the full flow of the North Fork is delivered over its wide escarpment.
This plunge of water against a high mountainous backdrop is well
worth seeing and in picturesqueness the campsites here are rarely
excelled. Across the river on the opposite bank the lovely symmetri-
cal trees are Engelmann spruce. Just below the falls at a point where
the river plunges again is a curious formation of stone that resem-
bles a group of heathen idols. The cascading rapids downstream are
especially impressive when the river is at its flood in late spring.
At 39 m. on U S 191 is a sign marked GRANDVIEW
POINT.
A sharp turn (R) from the highway leads to an eminence which
affords a fine view of LOWER MESA FALLS. This second drop is
1 The heights of all waterfalls in Idaho are taken from the Geo-
logical Survey Water-Supply Paper 657.
y m
.•?^- *i'4tt^r-
^.^%r.3
J"?*
.IT"
■M
y
e*
V
,-3»
T O U R O N E 201
sixty-five feet, and beyond it the mist of the Upper Mesa Falls is
visible in the distance. Though only a little more than half the height
of the other waterfall, the Lower Mesa excels it in its greater con-
centration of water into a more furious downward pouring. In this
distance of a mile and a half the North Fork of Snake River drops
almost two hundred feet. Just south of Grandview Point is an
unusually inviting but unimproved campground.
U S 191 now descends by winding grade to leave
Targhee Forest.
WARM RIVER INN 48 m. (5,284 alt.) is the last of the
tourist resorts in this area. Like the others, it has a central
lodge with outlying cabins, but unlike them it stands almost
upon three rivers: the Warm, Robinson, and Snake. A
short distance out (R) is a large dance hall which offers
dancing on Saturday evenings. The highway now climbs
out of Warm River and on the right 49 m. is the Reiman
Ranch whose lodgepole buildings suggest what an enter-
prising farmer can do toward beautifying the place where
he lives. Remarkably ingenious is Reiman's own hydro-
electric plant on the river below.
At 50 m. on U S 191 is the junction with State 47.
State 47, a graveled road, connects U S 191 with the southwest
corner of Yellowstone National Park. Along this road are many
good campsites and unusually fine fishing. The best streams are
Bechler and Falls Rivers, Boundary, Porcupine, Rock, and Ash
Creeks, all accessible from the highway.
At 9 m. on State 47 is the YOUNG RANCH, which outfits pack trips
into the surrounding mountains.
BECHLER RIVER STATION of Yellowstone National Park, at 19
m., is in the center of a good hiking area of Yellowstone Park and
has excellent campgrounds. Right from Bechler River Station is a
trail to CAVE FALLS 4 m., a lovely waterfall on the Bechler River,
which gets its name from a large cave on the river bank from which
the most striking view of the falls may be had. An improved camp
has been provided at Cave Falls.
ASHTON 54 m. (5,256 alt.; 1,003 pop.) is the home of
the famous dog derby. This event, held annually on Feb-
ruary 22, attracts drivers from Canada and many of the
Northern States. Begun in 1917, and since then copied in
many parts of the country, this race was at first from
West Yellowstone to Ashton, a distance of sixty-four
202 IDAHO
miles. In that race a blizzard almost buried the drivers
and their teams and they did not reach Ashton until the
following day. Windriver Smith had a bulldog in the
lead; the second man out drove a bunch of mongrels
gathered from the farmyards of neighbors; but the
winner had an assortment of lusty young hounds that
had been used on mail teams out of Ashton. The record
for the present three-lap course of eight and one-third
miles is one hour, fifty-one minutes, and forty-one sec-
onds. The favorite dogs now are red Irish setters.
Upon leaving Targhee Forest and Warm River, U S
191 enters the upper Snake River Valley and goes almost
down the center of it for nearly a hundred miles. From
here to Blackfoot it lies across one of the richest agricul-
tural areas of the State. The chief crops throughout its
length are potatoes, sugar beets, peas, and hay. At Ash-
ton and from the highway east and west there are visible
on a clear day the magnificent Teton Peaks (L) in Wyo-
ming, reaching far into the sky like great towers of stone
and glass furrowed with snow. The highest of these peaks
standing upon the Teton Range in the Grand Teton Na-
tional Park reaches an altitude of 13,747 feet.
ST. ANTHONY 68 m. (4,958 alt.; 2,778 pop.) was
named for St. Anthony Falls in Minnesota. This town is
the seat of Fremont County, and the center of the seed-
pea industry of eastern Idaho. There is nothing of un-
usual interest in the town itself, but west of it are two
of the most remarkable natural phenomena in the State.
Right from St. Anthony an unnumbered and unimproved road goes
westward past the Industrial Training School, and from this point
signs will direct the traveler. These SAND DUNES 6 m., Idaho's
tiny Sahara Desert, lie in a belt more than a mile wide and thirty
miles long. It is quite beyond the power of words to describe the
wind-drifted golden banks that vary in height from ten to a hun-
dred feet. They flow over the landscape like a great arrested tide
with most of them unbelievably perfect in their symmetry and
contour. They are a beautiful picture at any time of day, and even
under a cloudy sky; but their soft and shimmering loveliness is to
be seen most impressively under a gorgeous sunset, when the flame
of the sky falls to the burning gold of the dunes, and the whole
TOUR ONE 203
earth here rolls away in soft mists of fire. Under the first light
of morning they awaken from an unfolded landscape of shadow and
gloom to faintly luminous witchery and then steadily into dazzling
piles of light and dark. And from year to year and mile to mile
they shift uncertainly under the sculpturing winds, and are never
twice the same.
CRYSTAL FALLS CAVE 28 m. is only one of the many caves in
this desolate volcanic area. Idaho has hundreds of caves, and a
few of them are known beyond the State's boundaries; but this one,
seen by hardly more than a score of persons and known by name to
fewer than a hundred, is perhaps the most remarkable one of all.
Those who venture out to explore its interiors should be prepared
for poor and unimproved road; should go equipped with warm
clothing and gas lanterns or powerful flashlights and about fifty
feet of rope; and ought to arrange to venture in a party of several,
because for the careless or the unwary this is a comparatively
dangerous journey.
The entrance to Crystal Falls Cave is by way of a ragged gulch
bedded with piles of stone, but the opening itself is large and
vaulted and leads easily to the first chamber. This room is huge
and rough with torn ceilings and walls and with countless tons of
rock heaped upon its floor. At its farther end is a rugged passage-
way that leads down, but not steeply, to the enormous first corridor
of the cave. The ceiling here at the beginning is perhaps a hundred
feet in height and descends in sweeping cui-ves to the walls, but
after a little the ceiling comes down to thirty or forty feet, and the
corridor runs for a quarter of a mile in an almost perfectly vaulted
archway of remarkable formation. After penetrating for a hundred
yards the explorer comes to a frozen river that lies upon half
the length of the main chamber. This river of ice, of unknown
depth, is eight or ten feet wide and reaches down the center of the
cave with a great sloping stone shelf running parallel on either side.
The explorer can take his way carefully along the glazed surface
of either ledge, or he can descend with the aid of a rope to the
river and walk on the ice.
At the ends of this river are the most amazing features to be
found in these interiors. The end first reached is a great waterfall
of ice that drops thirty feet to a tiny chamber of extraordinary
beauty. Close by this chamber, toward the cave entrance, is a
jagged basin some twenty feet across and thirty feet in depth, and
the explorer can descend without the aid of ropes and then turn to
the right and follow a short and narrow passage to the other
chamber. Upon coming to the other chamber he will probably hold
his breath at the unsurpassed loveliness of what he sees. This
waterfall of ice looks as if a river had plunged and had been sud-
denly frozen, because the contour of the descending flood is per-
fect, even to the spilled frozen flanking structure that looks like
tumbled chandeliers and draperies of glass. The floor of this small
chamber is of ice with perfect cones bedded in it, formed by the
dripping of water from the ceiling. On either side of the fall is a
204 IDAHO
passage that leads to an inclined floor of ice and to another long
and faultless corridor that lies exactly under the one above. This
chamber should be entered for a view of the ice fall from the other
side and because it leads, after dropping in its ceiling until the ex-
plorer for a few yards has to proceed on hands and knees, to an-
other huge chamber beyond, where ice crystals, studding walls and
ceiling, are breath-taking in their perfection. The descent from the
small chamber over the downward floor of ice can easily be made
with a rope or by the adventurous person without; but a rope will
be necessary to make the return to the small chamber.
Leaving the chamber of the waterfall, the explorer can prefer-
ably descend to the river of ice and follow it to its far end. At its
far end it cascades down in corrugations as if the ripples of the
stream had been suddenly frozen, too. At its far end, also, is the
loveliest corridor of all. It is smaller, though it allows a person to
walk without stooping, and it is perfectly vaulted. From its floor
up over its arched ceiling down to its floor again it is a solid mass
of ice crystals that grow in great bunches like flowers, each with a
thousand glass petals. The perfection of this long narrow corridor,
symmetrically arched and vaulted, and of its glittering jeweled
length, can hardly be suggested. Those who walk down it are
urged to proceed with care and not to touch the luxuriant brilliance
of the walls and ceiling; because this burgeoned fragile loveliness
breaks and falls in showers when touched, and is a long time in
growing again.
Possibly nobody yet knows how many corridors there are in this
cave, and doubtless nobody has remained long enough to see all of
the natural beauty to be found here. The attention of the explorer
is called to the coloring of some of the stone formations which, in
places, look like inlaid slates or huge rough mosaics in greens and
sepia browns. Here and there, too, ice hangs in draperies or like
prodigal glass chandeliers. On the curved walls above the river
ledges are great curved slabs that look like stucco and are perfect in
both pattern and contour. They seem to hang most precariously to
the vaulted sides as if they had been set up on edge and were held
in position by no more than a concealed button or hook. In all these
corridors, in fact, the visible stonework is remarkable in the reck-
lessness of its sculpturing and the variety of its pattern.
This is Idaho's principal area of caves. Within a radius of ten
miles from this one, eleven others have been explored wholly or in
part, and many remain unexplored. Crystal Falls Cave is the most
remarkable of those known, but some others are equally unusual
in their own way. The Corkscrew descends like a spiraled stairway
to nobody knows quite what depth; and another, unnamed, is a mas-
sive interior that runs underground for two miles. An adventurous
person who delights in subterranean exploration could spend months
here and never penetrate all the recesses to be found. In this whole
area there are no poisonous vipers and no poisonous insects.
Right from St. Anthony an unimproved road leads to the site of old
FORT HENRY on Snake River about 7 m. out. This broad flat
Crystal Falls Cave: Crystal Falls
Crystal Falls Cave: a backdrop
Crystal Falls Cave: a corridor
^FW
rmt^
o
uf 40
o
P^Rj^
TOUR ONE 205
valley was first explored by Andrew Henry of the Missouri Fur
Company in 1810. Trappers were the first to settle here, and
Beaver Dick Leigh and his Indian wife Jenny were the first to
build a home in this region. The fort, erected in 1810, was the first
on Snake River or any of its tributaries. It consisted of several
cabins and a dugout; but after Henry and his companions trapped
here and traded with the Shoshonis for a year they abandoned the
fort, and it was used by Wilson Price Hunt while his men built
Cottonwood canoes to venture down La Maudite Riviere Enragee
(the accursed mad river, the name given to the Snake by French
voyageurs after they had come to grief upon its falls and cascades).
For nearly a century the site of the old fort was unknown, but in
1927 a rock was unearthed which bore the inscription:
Al the cook, but nothing to cook.
This stone, together with two others inscribed "Gov't Camp, 1811"
and "Fort Henry 1811 by Captain Hunt," are now in Rexburg.
A monument to Fort Henry now stands on the bank
of Snake River where U S 191 crosses the bridge to
Rexburg.
At 75 m. is the junction with State 33.
State 33 leads through the TETON PASS (alt. 8,429) to Grand Teton
National Park and to the southern entrance of Yellowstone National
Park. Fishing along the entire length of State 33 is good, and unim-
proved campsites are frequent. At Canyon Creek 18 m., (R) from
State 33 on a graded road, is the PINCOCK HOT SPRINGS 5 m.,
which has private baths and a large indoor pool but no hotel accom-
modations. Fishing is very good in TETON RIVER 30 m., which
abounds in rainbow trout. At TETON CANYON 40 m. is the only
improved campground, 9 m. (L) from State 33. From VANTAGE
POINT in this canyon there is a magnificent view of Teton Peaks
and the surrounding country.
On State 33 is DRIGGS 41 m., county seat of Teton County. Here
is the largest bed of coal known to exist in the State. Geologists
estimate that about 11,000,000 tons lie in beds a few miles west but
the fields remain almost wholly unexploited. At 44 m. is TETON
BASIN, formerly called Pierre's Hole, a famous rendezvous in early
days for trappers and traders who gathered here in a rousing carnival
of sharp maneuvering and drunkenness. Probably no spot in the West
knew a larger congress of rascals and scoundrels. It was here that
42 adventurers encountered a roving band of 200 men, women, and
children of the Gros Ventre tribe, and, reinforced by Indian allies,
engaged in terrific battle. Arrows and spear points, and more in-
frequently, stone axes and tomahawks are still found on the battle-
field. A winter carnival of skiing and dog-racing draws a crowd
each year.
206 IDAHO
VICTOR 49 m. is the nearest railway station of the Oregon Short
Line R. R. of the U. P. system to the Jackson Hole Country and the
Grand Teton National Park. It is 6 m. from the Wyoming Line.
On U S 191 near Rexburg there is a monument to Fort
Henry (see above).
REXBURG 80 m. (4,861 alt. ; 3,048 pop.) was founded
in 1883 under instructions from the Mormon Church.
Named for Thomas Ricks, one of its founders, it soon
established mills and a school, and five years later a col-
lege. Characteristic Mormon resourcefulness and social
integrity have made of Rexburg the principal town in the
upper Snake River Valley north of Idaho Falls, and have
symbolized their industry in the tabernacle here. In
nothing is this city more typical of Mormon planning than
in the breadth of its streets.
RIGBY 94 m. (4,858 alt. ; 1,531 pop.) is another town
which, like most of those in eastern Idaho, has been
planned and developed chiefly through Mormon initiative
and enterprise. It is another center of a potato, sugar-beet,
and seed-pea area.
Right from Rigby on State 48, an unimproved road, are the
MENAN BUTTES 8 m., which stand at the confluence of the North
and South Forks of Snake River. Great quantities of sediment carried
down from the watersheds to this point are here spread out because of
the stream's decreased velocity into a broad delta with the river
cutting across it in several channels. Just beyond are the buttes,
broad of base with gently sloping sides and broad tops, rising six
hundred feet above the surrounding plains. Each has a well-
defined extinct crater in its top, about a mile in diameter and two
hundred feet in depth. The beds of ejected materials fall away in
all directions at sharp angles and flatten at the base. Sand and
gravel contained in the strata of which the craters are built indi-
cate that these volcanoes were erupted explosively through an old
river or lake deposit. The cones are of the same age and moderately
recent. Quarried at their base is a black volcanic rock of cemented
fragments and explosive dust which is used locally in buildings.
These great bleak sentinels have been little explored, and only
rarely do persons descend to their crater beds. Between the two
are rocks bearing Indian petroglyphs of men, bison, cranes, rabbits,
and horses. Because of t"he fact that the horse, unknown to Indians
long ago, is represented here, no great antiquity is claimed for
T O U R N E 207
these writings. South of these buttes ai-e two smaller ones, covered
with juniper, which were once a favorite camping ground for In-
dians of this valley. 1
At 103 m. on U S 191 is a junction with State 22.
Left on State 22, a paved road, is RIRIE 12 m. State 22 is the high-
way from Idaho which leads to the southern entrance to Yellowstone
Park. Ririe is one of the most recent of Idaho towns and perhaps
as close as any other to the mood and vigor of the frontier. If the
visitor wishes to come as close as it is possible to come today to the
rowdy spirit of the old West, he should plan to attend the Friday
night dance in the new Ririe dance hall. State 22, still surfaced,
proceeds to the hamlet of POPLAR 16 m., out of which two country
lanes lead (L) to the HEISE HOT SPRINGS 3 m. just across the
South Fork of Snake River by ferry. This resort, the most popular
in this part of Idaho, offers hotel accommodations and indoor and
outdoor pools. E of Poplar the highway enters the foothills of the
eastern mountain range; crosses the rolling belt of the Antelope dry
farms, with the South Fork coming down its gorge on the left; and
then falls by easy grade to the river and a tiny valley (Conant),
and climbs hills again to swing leftward to the river bridge. It
now follows the stream to SWAN VALLEY 37 m., so named be-
cause once a haven of swans. At this point it forms a junction
with State 31.
State 22 proceeds up the gorge of the South Fork of Snake
River to ALPINE 69 m., the Idaho-Wyoming Line, and its
junction with Wyoming 89 which goes southward to its junction
with State 35 and U S 30 N at MONTPELIER (see Tour 3, Sec.
a). From Alpine an unsurfaced road has recently been completed
up the magnificent Grand Canyon of the South Fork in Wyoming to
Jackson. In this stretch of twenty-five miles the river has cut across a
great many sedimentary formations, with the canyon now ranging
in width from one hundred to one thousand feet and in depth from
one thousand to four thousand. The scenery here is rarely equaled,
and the river and adjacent streams have seen few fishermen. This
is the most spectacular route to the southern entrance of Yellow-
stone Park.
An alternate approach to Yellowstone is State 31 which pro-
ceeds from Swan Valley (L) by benchland up Pine Creek and over a
pass and down into VICTOR 23 m. After leaving Victor it climbs
over a series of cutbacks to Teton Pass (in Wyoming) at an eleva-
tion of 8,500 feet, and then drops for six miles over another breath-
less series of cutbacks into the Jackson Hole country. The view
from Teton Pass is one of the most remarkable in the West.
1 Statements about these buttes (also sometimes called the Market
Lake Buttes) are based on United States Geological Survey Bulletin
199.
208 IDAHO
IDAHO FALLS 109 m. (4,709 alt.; 9,429 pop.), the
seat of Bonneville County and third in size in the State,
is the cultural and industrial center of the upper Snake
River Valley. The most remarkable fact about this beau-
tiful and thriving town is its hydroelectric plant, one of
the largest municipally owned in the United States. The
plant consists of two sections, one at the west end of
Broadway, and the other three miles up the river. Both
are open to visitors. The lower unit is also used to pump
water from three deep wells which have a combined flow
of 13,500,000 gallons every twenty-four hours. For the
citizens of Idaho Falls, socialism is a word that may be
anathema, but the fact remains, nevertheless, that this
is Idaho's most socialistic city, and promises to become
in consequence eventually tax-free and the most prosper-
ous one in the State. Its electric power rate is one of the
lowest in the Northwest, and its city tax rate is only a
little more than a third of the average for Idaho as a
whole. Above all overhead and maintenance and depre-
ciation costs, this municipal plant nets the city an annual
profit of more than a hundred thousand dollars for liqui-
dation of its debts and expansion of its civic programs.
Idaho Falls will soon be free of indebtedness, and under
wise leadership it will eventually be free of taxes, and
these two circumstances will give to it an enormous ad-
vantage over other Idaho cities. And this city, finding
that its one venture into municipal ownership paid huge
dividends, next built a modern hotel, the BONNEVILLE,
and has discovered it to be an asset also. Discovering that
it had unused profits from its power plant, it built a hall to
house the fire and police departments, a radio station, and
an engineering and drafting department in addition to the
customary offices. This hall was erected at a cost of
$200,000 without bond issue or increase in taxes.
It is the shipping center of this part of the State. The
normal acreage of its seed-pea industry is fifty thousand,
and this is minor in comparison with hay or potatoes or
TOUR ONE 209
beets. Idaho ranks fourth in production of honey, and
Idaho Falls is one of the largest centers of this product.
The potato-flour mill is one of the few in the world, and
uses annually about ten million pounds of culled potatoes
that would otherwise be wasted or used only for hog feed.
This plant, which ships to various parts of the world, pro-
duces as much as 2,500,000 pounds of flour in a season.
Left from Idaho Falls on an improved road is LINCOLN 3 m. in
which is one of the largest sugar factories of the West. It has a
capacity of sixty-five million pounds annually.
At the junction of Elm Street and Boulevard is Tri-
angle Park, in which are to be found rare species of shrub,
flower, and tree. Facing Snake River and off Broadway
(L) is ISLAND PARK which contains a few historic relics,
an aquarium, a few wild animals, and small rearing ponds
for fish. KATE CURLEY PARK, covering a city block, is
on Lee and Emerson ; and CITY PARK is southward (L)
just beyond the city limits. Here are an artificial lake, used
as a swimming pool, and a small zoological garden of native
wild animals. Admission is free here, as it also is to the
pheasant farm just north of Highland Park. This city's
golf field, one of the few eighteen-hole courses in the State,
is irrigated by an underground system and has an ex-
cellent turf. HIGHLAND PARK on U S 191 just north of
the city, is equipped with kitchens, tennis courts, and a
children's swimming pool and playground.
The historic TAYLOR TOLL BRIDGE, of which only
the stone abutments remain, was built across Snake River
in 1866-7. The timbers were hauled from Beaver Canyon,
eighty miles north, and the iron was obtained from old
freight wagons and from a wrecked steamboat on the
Missouri River. The stage station and post oflice here
were formerly called Eagle Rock because a great stone
out in the river was for many years the nesting place of
an eagle. On Willow Creek north of the city are the
scarred but victorious remnants of the first orchard in
210 IDAHO
this part of Idaho. One huge old pear tree has become a
towering patriarch that looks over even the cottonwoods
along the creek.
Idaho Falls is at the junction with U S 91 (see Tour 1,
Sec. b and Tour 2).
Right on U S 91 is a lava field known as HELL'S HALF ACRE 14 m.,
in which until 1928 was a remarkable old juniper (cedar) tree that
began its growth in 310 A. D. It was still alive when cut down and
an examination of it discovered 1,618 rings which, according to
geologists, recorded alternate cycles of rainfall and drouth.
Section b. Idaho Falls to Utah Line, 136.9 m.
Valley route with surfaced road throughout. Customary
accommodations. The Greyhound Lines and Intermoun-
tain Transport Co. buses follow this highway between
Butte and Salt Lake City.
South out of Idaho Falls U S 91 proceeds through
Idaho's most famous potato area. On the left is the moun-
tain range that spills westward from the Wyoming-Idaho
boundary, and on the right the fertile valley reaches away
to the volcanic lava plains.
SHELLEY 10 m. (4,624 alt.; 1,447 pop.) is the cen-
ter of the most prolific potato region in the State. The
warehouses here export annually about two thousand
carloads of Idaho russets that are known for their quality
wherever potatoes are known. At the close of the harvest
in October a Spud Day celebration is held, with choice
potatoes on display and with baked potatoes served to
passengers on every train and motor coach going through
the town.
Right from Shelley on an unimproved road are THE LAVAS 4 m., a
weird assortment of small caves and fissures and solidified rock flows
with dwarfed trees hanging precariously to the edges, with lovely
ferns thriving incongruously in the deep pits. The remoter depths
are said to be the haunts of coyotes and wildcats and rattlesnakes;
and are waiting, in consequence, for someone bold enough to explore
TOUR ONE 211
them. Because of the presence of so many arrowheads and other
Indian relics in the tables and pockets here, it has been surmised that
an ancient Indian village was inundated by the eruptions. These
lavas are upon the eastern margin of that huge area of which the
Craters of the Moon National Monument is the core. In the west the
Twin Buttes are visible on a clear day.
BLACKFOOT 27 m. (4,505 alt.; 3,199 pop.) was
named for the Blackfeet Indian tribe. The Indians were
called Siksika (meaning black of feet) because their
feet are said to have been blackened by constant wading in
the ashes of the regions which had been devastated by fire.
If a town can be summarized by a single quality, then per-
haps the most notable characteristic of Blackf oot is the fact
that its indefatigable librarian has made of this city not
only probably the most book-conscious one in the State
but has also lifted its taste in reading far above the usual
levels. This circumstance is all the more remarkable when
the books in this small library are compared with those in
other public libraries in Idaho, and when it is remembered
that all the books in all the public hbraries in the State do
not add to more than half a million. So awakened has this
town become to the cultural possibilities to be found in a
good library that it recently made an extensive drive to
enlarge its resources in reading.
At Blackf oot is the junction with State 27. This im-
proved road is the most frequent point of diversion to
the Craters of the Moon (see Tour 4).
Left from Blackfoot is an unimproved road which leads into the
Blackfoot River country and adjacent terrain. The length of this
tour depends on the taste and time of the adventurer. The distance
is more than sixty miles if he penetrates clear to the Grays Lake
area (also accessible by way of Soda Springs: see Tour 3, Sec. a).
This road leads to mountains, rivers, and lakes, and to fishing and
wild game. Near the head of WOLVERINE CREEK 30 m., which
empties into Blackfoot River, are campsites, an open-air dance pavil-
ion, and a fish hatchery owned by sportsmen of this region. GRAYS
LAKE 60 m., lying between the Little Valley Hills and the peaks of
the Caribou Range, can be reached over fair road if the traveler
wishes to penetrate wilderness and find campsites that overlook
a large part of eastern Idaho.
212 IDAHO
FORT HALL 40 m. (4,445 alt.) is an Indian agency
for the Bannack, Shoshoni, and other tribes. Annual
dances of unusual interest are held here: the Sun Dance
about July 24, followed by the War, Owl, Rabbit, and
Grass Dances, each with its own characteristic songs and
drumbeats. The Warm Dance, held in late January or
early February, is a religious ritual, intended to hasten
the end of winter. Later there is an Easter Dance ac-
companied by an egg feast. The Indians on the reserva-
tion are excellent artisans, the women engaging in many
kinds of intricate bead work upon such articles of cloth-
ing as moccasins and vests. These, as well as other handi-
craft, are for sale in the stores in Fort Hall.
The Fort Hall Reservation lies chiefly eastward from
the agency. The Indians here are engaged in agriculture,
and have their own reservoir for the impounding of water
to irrigate their lands (see Tour 3, Sec. a). They have not
been so successful in their agricultural enterprises as the
Indians in northern Idaho, chiefly because the lands as-
signed to them are less fertile.
Close by U S 91 is a lava monument (L) which com-
memorates old Fort Hall.
Right from the Agency, on a dirt road built recently by the Indians,
is the site of old Fort Hall .25 m. An old well, once the center of its
enclosure, and the triangular rifle pits, now bedded with grass, are
all that remain of the fort. Floods have washed away the adobe
plaster with which Hudson's Bay Company covered Wyeth's cotton-
wood stockade, and the poles themselves were filched by old-timers
to build cabins and bridges and roads. This fort, built in 1834, and
becoming at once the chief refuge in this great area of Indians and
sagebrush, was the only inhabited place between Fort Bridger and
Fort Boise. Emigrant wagon trains, coming out of the lonely deserts
and valleys eastward, could see from afar its cool whitewashed
walls, its red flag lettered H. B. C. (Hudson's Bay Company, but
meaning, old trappers said, Here Before Christ) ; and once within
its walls they could forget for awhile the vast empty landscapes out
of which they had come. Until its destruction by flood in 1863, Fort
Hall was the rendezvous of Indians and Spaniards and French
Canadians, priests and doctors and missionaries, besides hordes of
nondescript adventurers of all kinds. Some came to rest, some to
pray, some to celebrate on liquor distilled from wild honey, some to
TOUR ONE 213
heal wounds made by Indian arrows, and some to bury their dead.
Abandoned in 1855, the fort was a wayside inn for wagon trains
until a flood demolished it eight years later. Close by the highway
is a lava monument commemorating it.
Fort Hall covered a half acre of ground, and was surrounded by
a wall five feet high and nineteen inches thick. Within the stockade
were dwellings and stores and barns, all overshadowed by a two-
story blockhouse or bastion. Standing in the center of the battle-
ground of the Bannacks, Blackfeet, and Crows, and unprotected on
all sides, it was in constant danger of attack, but weathered the
years and its enemies to disappear at last and be forgotten. For a
long while thereafter its actual site was unknown. In 1906 Ezra
Meeker went over the Oregon Trail with ox team and dogs, but he
was not able to determine the site until ten years later when the
old well and rifle pits were found. Flood and erosion had completely
changed the contour of the land upon which it had stood.
POCATELLO 52 m. (see Tour 3, Sec. a for this city
and for the highway from it to McCammon twenty-five
miles south. Here U S 30 N and U S 91 are the same.)
At DOWNEY 92 m. (4,860 alt. ; 553 pop.) is the junc-
tion with State 36. From this town U S 91 and State
36 run parallel into Utah. State 36 avoids the beautiful
Logan Canyon and goes over less mountainous terrain.
Right from Downey on State 36 is MALAD CITY 21 m. (4,700 alt.;
2,535 pop.), the seat of Oneida County and once the seat of this en-
tire part of the State. The Malad River was named by French-
Canadian trappers, though whether they were made ill from drink-
ing the water or from overgorging on the flesh of beaver seems not
to be known. Few towns in Idaho have had a more turbulent past.
A pictorial history of Malad City would show a panorama of stage
robberies, lynchings, and murders. It was over this Montana Road
that gold was freighted from northern mines to the smelters in
Utah, and it was in this town that the coaches of the Overland Stage
came to a stop. Malad today is remarkable chiefly for the crazy ir-
regularity of its streets, many of which were laid at random upon old
paths and cow trails; and for its historic log cabins still scattered
among its homes. The East Malad Mountain rises to a height of
9,332 feet and shelters the town from extremes of weather. Sixteen
miles southeast in Weston Canyon is the Pass of the Standing Rock,
named by John C. Fremont, who camped here on August 29, 1843,
while searching for the Great Salt Lake.
From Malad City it is 13 m. to the Utah Line and 57 m. to Brig-
ham City in Utah.
214 IDAHO
PRESTON 125 m. (4,718 alt. ; 3,381 pop.) is the seat
of Franklin County and the center of this irrigated part
of the State upon the watershed of Bear River.
Left from Preston is the Emigration Canyon Road (once the Cali-
fornia cut-off used by forty-niners to avoid the long detour by way
of Fort Hall), which leads into the mountains and canyons of the
Cache National Forest. Fishing is good in this area, many fine
campsites are available, and the drive up Bear River is the most
beautiful in southeastern Idaho. A few miles northeast of Preston
on State 34 is the Bear River Canyon. Four miles out, a monu-
ment marks the site of Colonel E. P. Connor's attack on the Ban-
nack Indians on January 29, 1863. The battle took place at the
mouth of a small stream (later named Battle Creek) which the
Indian chieftains. Bear Hunter and Sagwitch, had chosen for their
winter home. The Indians defended themselves with embankments
of woven willows, but in spite of their ingenuity and their courage
they were so badly defeated that Franklin settlers who visited the
battleground the next day declared that "you could walk on dead
Indians for quite a distance without touching ground." Arrow-
heads and spear points are still found near the monument.
U S 91 proceeds through the fertile valley lying be-
tween the watersheds of Bear and Malad Rivers.
FRANKLIN 133 m. (4,497 alt.; 531 pop.) was the
first permanent white settlement in Idaho. This town was
founded in 1860 by a party of Mormon emigrants who
thought they were in Utah, but were just across the
line. They were industriously unaware that they were
establishing the first school, or the first irrigation sys-
tem in Idaho when they diverted the waters from Maple
Creek to this section of Cache Valley. Back East, the
indefatigable Brigham Young had bought a steam engine
and had it shipped up the Missouri River to Fort Benton
and then overland to Franklin by wagon and team. When
it is remembered that this engine weighed ten thousand
pounds, the long trek for hundreds of miles by wagon and
oxen over mountains and rivers is to be seen as a small epic
in itself. The engine, one of Idaho's few persistent his-
toric survivals, was used first in a sawmill in Franklin;
then moved to Soda Springs and back again to Franklin ;
and after awhile abandoned and forgotten. For many
TOUR ONE 215
years it gathered rust by the roadside until citizens de-
cided it was a relic and placed it in the FRANKLIN HALL
where it and other historic items can be seen.
At 133 m. U S 91 crosses the Idaho-Utah Line 20 m. N
of Logan, Utah (see Utah Tour 1-A).
TOUR NO. 2
(Butte, Montana) — Dubois — Idaho Falls. U S 91.
Montana Line to Idaho Falls, 83 m.
Surfaced throughout, this is the main traveled highway
between Butte and Salt Lake City, but it lies for the most
part over flat, semiarid, and rather desolate country and
offers little of beauty or interest. The route is paralleled
by the Oregon Short Line of the Union Pacific System and
by the Greyhound Lines and Intermountain Transport Co.
buses. Accommodations limited.
U S 91 enters Idaho from Montana 132 m. S of Butte,
Montana, over the Bitterroot Mountains (6,823 alt.) and
the Continental Divide, but the gradient is easy even
though the highway passes from the eastern to the west-
ern watershed. For several miles the road goes through
mountainous country and the western end of the Targhee
National Forest.
SPENCER 17 m. (5,883 alt. ; 107 pop.) is in a formida-
ble area of bleak landscapes that lie entirely across Clark
County and far into Jefferson County on the south. This
region is the northeastern flank of that vast lava terrain
upon central Idaho of which the Craters of the Moon are
a picturesque summary.
Right on this improved road which swings southwest and meets
State 27 at 82 m. is Arco (see Tour 4).
DUBOIS 33 m. (5,148 alt.; 312 pop.) is the seat of
Clark County and the largest town within a radius of
thirty miles in any direction. This capital of a wasteland
was named for former U. S. Senator Fred Dubois. Far
out in the west on Birch Creek (but not worth a visit) is
the ghost town of Viola: at one time two thirds of the
lead produced in the United States came from here, but
now only one log cabin and a slag dump remain.
T O U R T W 217
1. Right from Dubois, State 29 leads to LIDY HOT SPRINGS 20 m.
sometimes called, and not without reason. The Oasis, where there are
indoor and outdoor swimming pools supplied by hot mineralized
water, a dance hall, and camping sites.
2. Left from Dubois, a fair road leads to the U. S. SHEEP EXPERI-
MENTAL STATION 6 m., which is visited by a great many travelers
over this highway.
At 57 m. is the junction with State 28, an improved
road.
Right on State 28 is MUD LAKE 12 m., a large body of water that
harbors thousands of migratory ducks and geese. This lake has no
outlet; and though Camas Creek flows into it and though it gathers
much rain and snow from its watersheds, it is slowly disappeai'ing.
This circumstance is less surprising when it is remembered that this
large area, and especially westward, is one of vanishing streams.
Northward, the Beaver and Medicine Lodge Creeks lose themselves
completely in the lava fields; and westward, two rivers disappear.
Throughout this region are fissures and porous formations, and
under these there are doubtless subterranean channels along which
the buried streams flow for nobody knows how far. This region
is underlaid for the most part by great deposits of basalt that has
been poured out at different times from many widely distributed
craters. These erratic flows have piled up the basalt to high levels
and have in consequence produced broad but shallow and undrained
depressions into which the streams are discharged. Some of these
remain indefinitely as tiny lakes. North of Mud Lake is an ex-
tensive lava plain with fantastic buttes; and southwest are the
Antelope and Circular Buttes, two volcanic cones that stand above
the surrounding country. The flora in this area is chiefly white
or sweet sage, rabbit brush, and Russian thistle, with chaparral
above 4,500 feet. Around the lake on the sloughs adjacent is a
luxuriant growth of marsh grass and tule.
ROBERTS 65 m. (4,775 alt.; 297 pop.) was known
until recently as Market Lake. The former name owes
to the fact that in frontier times there was a lake here
upon which there were thousands of ducks and geese.
These were so abundant that early settlers came here to
gather their meat, and somewhat facetiously called the
place Market Lake, and spoke jocularly of going to the
market for a supply of food. The name was changed to
honor a railroad superintendent.
U S 91 continues to Idaho Falls 85 m. (See Tour 1,
Sec. a).
TOUR NO. 3
(Cheyenne, Wyoming) — Montpelier — Pocatello — Twin
Falls — Boise — Weiser — (Baker, Oregon). U S 30 N and
U S 30. Oregon Trail Route.
Wyoming Line to Oregon Line 462 m.
The Union Pacific Railroad roughly parallels this highway
throughout, and the Union Pacific Stages follow it between
Pocatello and Weiser.
Usual accommodations throughout.
Section a. Wyoming Line to Pocatello, 122 m.
This section of Tour 3 follows the Bear and Portneuf Rivers
with no difl!icult grades. Surfaced highway.
U S 30 N enters Idaho and the Bear Lake Valley at
Border on the Idaho-Wyoming Line in the extreme south-
eastern part of the State. This part of Idaho is an area
of lofty ranges, of lakes, of rivers and creeks, and of small
valleys upon the great watersheds. Very little of it lies
at an elevation less than six thousand feet, and this alti-
tude makes for deep winters and cool summers, with an
average temperature of forty-six degrees. The valleys
are given to agriculture under irrigation, the uplands and
mountains to grazing. The chief crops are grain and
potatoes and the hardier fruits, with grapes abundant
farther south by Utah. The Caribou National Forest is
on the right, the Cache National Forest on the left, but
most of the old-growth timber has been exhausted, and
the somewhat denuded watersheds offer the same prob-
lems in erosion and overgrazing that are to be found in
many parts of the State. Bear Lake Valley is the only
part of southern Idaho that is not drained by Snake
River.
TOUR THREE 219
MONTPELIER 22 m. (5,941 alt.; 2,436 pop.) is the
largest town in this area. Founded in 1864, it was first
known as Clover Creek and later as Belmont; but when
Brigham Young came here and decided that he liked it,
he named it after the capital of his native State. This town
is the gateway to one of Idaho's most remarkable regions.
Left from Montpelier, State 35 leads to one of the chief recreation
areas of eastern Idaho.
PARIS 9 m. is notable because it has the finest buildings of any
small town in Idaho. On the left is a typical tabernacle of the
Mormon Church. The dominant sect in eastern and southeastern
Idaho is Mormon, and the most attractive architecture throughout
this region is to be found in its tabernacles and temples. The Paris
free campgrounds are equipped with tables and stoves to accommo-
date five hundred persons; and through the grounds runs the water
of Paris Creek, very cold even in midsummer, and extremely clear.
South of Paris at 12 m. on State 35 a right turn from 35 past the
store goes up a canyon to lovely BLOOMINGTON LAKE 9 m.
This lake, lying under huge cliffs, covers twelve acres and is of
clear cold water of unknown depth which gushes from innumerable
springs far under. Excellent campsites are available here. In the
appropriate season this lake is framed like a tremendous jewel
among an unusually luxuriant wealth of wild flowers, including
larkspur, columbine, dogwood, and mountain ash. In 1931 the
U. S. Forest Service planted in this lake 1,000 California glacial
or golden trout, a rare species that is not found in many places.
South of Paris at 17 m. on State 35 a right turn leads up
St. Charles Canyon and enters Cache National Forest and pro-
ceeds to the MINNETONKA CAVE 10 m. At 9.5 m. a left
turn enters the Minnetonka campground, and those wishing to
explore the cave will leave their automobiles here and go up the
mountain by footpath. It is a little more than a half mile, and a
steep climb, and on a warm day it is advisable to take drinking
water along. Gas lanterns and not flashlights are absolutely
necessary equipment in exploration of the cave, as well as rugged
clothing. The journey to the farthest chamber and return requires
from three to six hours.
The entrance to this cave is most appropriately what the en-
trance to any remarkable interior should be. The visitor at the
top of the trail comes to a sheer wall of rock which stands against
the backbone of the mountain. Midway in the wall at its bottom
is a door which opens upon a tunnel that reaches downward by easy
descent for a hundred yards. Its ceiling is extremely rugged with
great thrusting abutments hung together in a huge amorphous
roof. Some of the stone here looks like polished green marble
but farther down it yields to white mounded bluffs bottomside up.
220 IDAHO
Seventy-five yards down the corridor the right wing climbs away
into a large chamber, the floor of which meets and is welded with
the ceiling. At one hundred yards the tunnel swings to the left.
The floor of it is now an acreage of boulders that scale upward
ragged ton by ton. At the top of this climb is a grotesque serrated
ceiling with some brown columnar stalagmites on the right, and just
beyond these the stone looks as if great vats of whipped cream
had been spilled and turned to rock. The low stratified roof also
has small overflows that suggest animistic symbols on an ancient
temple.
The path now goes steeply upward over huge glazed stones
scattered in a jungle under a stupendous roof in which eternity is
commemorated in underhung ledges and reefs. Visitors should
pause here in their ascent and send one person ahead to the summit
with a gas lantern. For the beautiful stalagmites resemble nothing
so much as a cemetery on a hilltop under moonlight. The monu-
ments vary considerably in size: some of them obviously seem to
stand over the bones of the great and some over the humble, and
all of them together, when seen under the glow of a hidden
lantern, make one of the loveliest pictures to be found in the cave.
Beyond the principal graveyard stands a huge bronzed monument
that has been called King Tut, and at his side is another, doubtless
his wife; but these look more like the images of heathen gods. The
ceiling here was once very beautiful, too, with stalactites hanging
down in an inverted garden of small columns, but vandals have
knocked most of them off and they now lie scattered on the floor.
This cemetery is under a high vaulted ceiling that is overwhelming
in the Gothic majesty of its sculpturing.
Nothing is more notable about this cave than the way in which
it becomes progressively more breath-taking. After the visitor has
passed these monuments on a hillside, he proceeds through a narrow
and indescribably ragged passageway to another stupendous cham-
ber. In its first fifty yards its floor is a broad steep incline which
is paralleled by an equally hunchbacked ceiling. Then the corridor
widens and the ceiling lifts away. After another fifty yards the
explorer ought to observe the large stones under his feet: of ap-
parently soft texture and of soft color, they look like blocks of
yellow congealed cream imbedded with nuts. Still floored with
these huge cream puffs or with scattered monuments that look like
case-hardened granite, this chamber continues and then drops down
into an awful gorge more than a hundred feet in depth. A more
terrifying interior it would be difficult to find; but the descent
from huge stone to stone is not dangerous, and after it is made
the visitor will find himself at the bottom of a barbarous tunnel
that is hardly more than a dozen feet wide but reaches sheer
through gloom a hundred feet to its ceiling. From the floor, the
explorer should note on his right the enormous flat shelf that is
actually laid out upon stone beams. The underside of this shelf
is a slab of pavement that is as perfect as the plastered wall of
a house. The walls in this tunnel are spiked and toothed, with each
Cavern of the Idols
TOUR THREE 221
looking like a plateau of small crags turned upon its edge, or with
a plateau of crags inverted to make the ceiling.
At the far end the trail climbs very sharply from shelf to shelf
and comes to another gigantic chamber with boulders as large as
houses strewn over its floor and with enormous rifts running like
half-buried beams through its ceiling. Some water falls here upon
the large round stones that look like solidified kalsomine built of
river cobble rock. Water can be heard in other invisible parts of
this chamber. The right flank, vanishing into darkness, suggests
other interiors beyond, but none have been found. To the left, and
just beyond the water, is a mammoth blade of stone that looks like
the cleaver of some prehistoric giant; and beyond this, still to the
left, the path again falls sharply over rock hummocks shelved
downward in a world of anarchy and enters a long serpentine
corridor, the floor of which makes easy walking in contrast with
the floors already covered. This chamber leads after a hundred
yards to the Bride. The Bride herself is a huge stalagmite seven
feet high with her creamy trousseau draped virginally around her;
and the Bridegroom hangs from the ceiling by his heels. There is
a small stream of water under the floor here and plainly audible,
and quite likely it could be reached by removing some of the smaller
stones. The cave now runs to the left another hundred yards and
terminates, so far as is now known, in two divided chambers that
drop down into vaulted archways at their far end.
Such briefly is this enormous cave lying under the backbone of
a mountain. Undisciplined and vandalic, and the quiet but mag-
nificent synopsis of a once turbulent time, it is in its barbarous
sculpturing the most impressive of all the known caves in the
State. Nobody knows how much of it remains undiscovered and
unexplored. Only a few persons have entered it. And these, after
several hours of difficult journeying, are usually ready to turn
back when they reach the Bridal Chamber and seek sunlight and
ponder on what they have seen. The elevation of this cave is
7,500 feet.
On State 35 is BEAR LAKE 18 m. and its many half-deserted
resorts. This body of water, lying half in Idaho and half in Utah,
was until a few years ago a very beautiful lake of deep blue with
excellent beaches and recreational facilities. There were many fine
summer homes along its shores. But the Utah Power Company
was allowed during the years of drouth to install pumps and build
canals and take great quantities of water out of the lake to be di-
verted down Bear River to the turbines of the plant in northern
Utah. In consequence, the lake has sunk more than twenty feet,
its beaches have become quagmires or wide stretches of sand, and
its resorts have almost gone bankrupt. Lately, it is true, the lake
has risen several feet; but even if it were to be restored to its
former level. Bear Lake can never recover its former glory as
long as its water is at the mercy of capricious interests. Farms in
this valley have suffered, too.
222 IDAHO
FISH HAVEN 23 m., formerly a beautiful spot, is only a shabby
ghost of what it used to be — and it used to be the most important
Idaho resort on the west side of the lake. It still offers cabins, bath-
ing, boating, and hiking; but the chief hiking is now from the resort
to the lake, a quarter of a mile away. Just south of it, in Utah, is the
Lakota Resort, which has sunk under a similar fate. Nor have the
many summer homes fared any better: they still stand, but they
overlook not the lake as formerly but the wide barren margin that
the retreating waters have left. At the north end of the lake is the
pumping plant of the Utah Company and north of this is Mud Lake,
a much smaller body of water that is a favorite with thousands of
migratory wild geese and ducks. At the northeastern corner of Bear
Lake is the BEAR LAKE HOT SPRINGS RESORT with its hotel
empty, its large swimming pool used only by week-enders, and its
boats junked.
There are trout in the lake plus several species of whitefish, but
fishing here is poor. The lake, except for its recent naked flanks,
is still beautiful, and the best vantage point is in Utah. At 28 m. is an
unobstructed view of the colorful mountain range that is the eastern
backdrop of the lake, with a second and higher range beyond, and a
third, still higher, beyond the second. Under morning sun the lake
is a very deep blue, but in late afternoon it is pale gray or green with
the mountains on the far side throwing soft lavender shadows. Its
backdrop as the sun sets looks like a long bank of deep purple fog.
In Utah at 30 m. a right turn leads to Logan.
U S 30 N goes west out of Montpelier and follows
Bear River, which in its 165 miles of length is one of the
most circuitous streams in the United States. It rises in
northern Utah, flows for 30 miles through Wyoming,
and enters Idaho near Border. For 40 miles now it
seems decided, but W of Soda Springs it pursues every pos-
sible direction before leaving the State to enter Utah and
seek the Great Salt Lake. Most picturesque is its gorge as
viewed from the coaches of trains near the Utah-Idaho
Line. In crossing southeastern Idaho the highway crosses
one of the richest areas of buried wealth in the world,
because four fifths of the phosphate on the North Ameri-
can Continent lie here and in adjacent areas in Utah, Wyo-
ming, and Montana.
At 46 m. is the junction with a poor road.
Right on this road, which leads up a canyon 2 m., is the SULPHUR
SPRINGS. The rock around this spring is so nearly pure sulphur
that it will burn with a steady flame. Eastward a mile on U S 30 N
is another left turn up a canyon to Swan Lake. An arc of stone here
I
TOURTHREE 223
five hundred feet wide and forty feet high has impounded a reservoir
clear across the mouth of Swan Lake Creek. Deep in the water
here, petrified timbers are visible. A half mile above this lake is
another of about its size, and at the head of the creek which helps to
feed these lakes are springs which taste strongly of sulphur. The only
fish in these lakes is a tiny minnowlike creature that seems never to
grow larger than trout bait. In the wall impounding the lower lake
there is a small cave.
SODA SPRINGS 51 m. (5,777 alt.; 831 pop.) is the
third oldest settlement in the State. Fort Conner, the
southwest part of the present townsite, was established
in 1863 by General Conner and a little band of Marrisites,
dissenters from the Mormon Church. The old or lower
town has but one of the original buildings, the school-
house, still standing. The present townsite joins the orig-
inal on the east. Soda Springs was named for the many-
springs, highly charged with carbonic acid gas and most
of them cold, that gush out in this area. This whole re-
gion, in fact, is a wonderland of its own, though some of
the springs, like the Steamboat, have been inundated by
storage waters since the completion of a dam. The
STEAMBOAT SPRING, two miles west of the town, still
boils up through forty feet of water and explodes at the
surface. Analysis has shown that there are twenty-two
different degrees or kinds of mineral content in the springs
in this region, and all of them are said to have remarkable
curative power. There was formerly a bottling plant at
the Ninety Percent Spring near Stampede Park, and
though this no longer operates, thousands of persons do
come here annually to drink the waters. Favorite of all
with visitors is the HOOPER SPRING a mile north of
town. Close by it is the CHAMPAGNE SPRING, and
northward is the MAMMOTH SODA SPRING, which is
almost precisely of the same size as the Mammoth Hot
Springs in Yellowstone Park. Just south of the town,
where Little Spring Creek crosses the road, is the spot
where a family of seven emigrants was massacred. Just
west of the town is the cemetery in which these persons
were buried with their wagon box serving as a coffin.
224 IDAHO
1. Right on country road is STAMPEDE PARK 2 m., where in Au-
gust an annual stampede and rodeo is held. This park is a natural
amphitheater, bordered by peaks and flanked by peculiar stone form-
ations and rock crystals. The road to the park winds through cedar
and pine trees and is known as the Red Road because of the colorful
rock formations which were sculptured long ago by the springs.
The spring flowing into the park is known as Eighty Percent.
2. Left is MOUNT SHERMAN standing against the sky at an
elevation of 9,669 feet. Its summit is accessible over eighteen miles
of fair road and over trail in the last mile. From this peak. Salt
Lake Mountains are visible in the south, the Teton Peaks in the
north. There is excellent fishing along Eight Mile Creek which the
road follows.
3. Right from Soda Springs on State 34, a graveled road, are many
points of interest. SODA MOUND, beautifully landscaped, is on the
left just beyond the railway track. On the left 3 m. out is a round hill
at the foot of which was for a long time a nameless grave, now
known to be that of Charles Robinson, an early trapper. A right
turn at 4 m. out follows the Trail Creek road to the FORMATION
CAVE (sometimes called the Limestone Cavern) and to the 4 S
Ranch. The cave is reached by a left turn oflf the Trail Creek road at
.25 m. from its junction. This very lovely cave is about three hun-
dred yards long, about twenty-five feet in its average width, and
about fifteen feet in its ceiling. It has been formed by hard mineral-
ized waters, and in consequence its ceiling is studded with beautiful
stalactites that look like gray and white foliage in stone — and some
of them do have stems, tule, and leaves — or like delicate honeycombs
or like hard fine lace. The sandy floor has some stalagmites but it
is the ceiling that is a vision of loveliness.
The 4 S RANCH, the most important dude resort in this part
of the State, is 4 m. from the junction with State 34. It covers thirty-
five hundred acres, with excellent pastures adjoining the Caribou
National Forest and with excellent accommodations. It offers fishing
and hunting in season, campsites, footpath and horseback trips,
and swimming.
At 7 m. on State 34 is a right turn to CONDA, one of the princi-
pal phosphate plants of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. This
town, two miles off the road, is a model in planning and in the mod-
ern equipment of its homes. On the left of State 34, but at some
distance, are the MAMMOTH SPRINGS, the source of Soda Creek.
On the left at 10 m. is CHINA HAT HILL, beyond which are a
second hill and a third. Between these two is a lovely nameless lake
with neither outlet nor inlet but with many springs visible on its
bottom. It is an unusual body of water in appearance because it is
set down low and fenced around with steep walls. There are no fish
in its water. At 13 m. State 34 crosses Blackfoot River, and just
beyond the bridge a road leads (R) into the Caribou Forest. On the
left is the BLACKFOOT RESERVOIR, the water of which is used by
TOUR THREE 225
the Indians of the Fort Hall Reservation. This reservoir in its
beautiful setting and with hill-islands half buried looks more like
a mountain lake. It is heavily stocked with fish.
HENRY 20 m. is a ghost town on the Little Blackfoot River.
At 21.5 m. a left turn off State 34 skirts the northern end of the
reservoir and leads to campgrounds, excellent fishing, and to a
curious phenomenon. The latter, 14 m. from the junction, is a
great hole in the side of the mountain, and this is visible from
the road at 13 m. To reach the hole it is necessary to cross a
meadow afoot. According to an old-timer, it was in the night of
the second day of November, 1917, that he was awakened by a
terrific sound that brought him out of bed with his hair standing
on end. He went outside, expecting to see the sky falling or the
earth splitting open; and on the next day discovered that a hunk
had dropped out of the mountainside not far away. This hole
is about 150 feet across and about 75 feet in depth on its upper
side. In the bottom of it is water of unknown depth that foi-merly
was lucid but is now covered with a brown or green scum that looks
like heavy wallpaper, A part of the sheer walls are of earth, a
part of stone; and the strange thing about it is the fact that this
enormous piece of mountain dropped and disappeared from sight
into a body of water, the depth of which nobody has been able to
learn.
The main road still goes northward. At 24 m. a left turn cuts
between two shelves of rock that are known as ROBBER'S ROOST.
On the left a mile farther is MEADOW CREEK VALLEY, and at
28.5 m. there is a road which goes (L) along the west side of GRAYS
LAKE. The southern end of the lake 30 m. is a tule marsh, for
the lake itself is a large but very shallow body of water that is
flanked with bogs and meadows to which come tens of thousands
of wild ducks. At 33 m. the rock by the side of the road (R) is
BEAVERTAIL POINT: it was here that an Indian massacre oc-
curred and it was here that the men were buried. Two of the graves
are on the Point, and a third is by the ruins of a cabin just beyond
and close by the road. The latter is the grave of John Day for
whom this lake was first named and from whom later the distinction
was taken for nobody knows what reason. All three men were
buried in wagon boxes.
At 35 m. is a junction: the left turn goes up the lake, and the
right goes over the mountains and to Freedom, Wyoming, connecting
there with a road that leads northward to the Jackson Hole country,
Grand Teton National Park, and the southern entrance to Yellow-
stone Park.
U S 30 N goes westward out of Soda Springs. The flora
in this part of Idaho is chiefly aspen, lodgepole pine, lim-
ber pine, and Douglas flr among trees; maple, service-
berry, mahogany, chokecherry, snowberry, wild currant.
226 IDAHO
and wild rose among shrubs; and geranium, harebell,
cinquefoil, lupine, violet, daisy, larkspur, aster, paint-
brush, and wild carrot among the flowers. To the left
at 57 m. is SODA POINT, to which Fremont referred
in 1842 as Sheep Rock because of the great number of
mountain sheep seen here. It is an important geological
formation inasmuch as its jutting of lava caused Bear
River to turn southward and eventually enter Utah in-
stead of following the natural watershed of this region.
At 58 m. is a junction with State 34.
Left on State 34 is GRACE 6 m., where there is a large hydroelectric
plant that is annually visited by many persons. Two miles south of
Grace is VOLCANO HILL, and a few hundred yards east of the hill
is ICE CAVE, which is structurally a curious phenomenon. The
entrance pitches down for fifty yards but thereafter the floor is
fairly level to the far end. About halfway through is a skylight.
But the remarkable thing about this cave is its structural sym-
metry: fifty feet in width and about twenty-five in height, it runs
in an almost perfect corridor for half a mile and looks like the
upper half of an enormous barrel. And the walls and ceiling (be-
cause this was once the outlet of volcanic pourings) look as if they
had been plastered with hot lava. The far end terminates in piles
of lava, once molten, and is known as the DEVILS KITCHEN.
Though there is not much ice in it, this interior has been known
as the ice cave since its discovery many decades ago.
LAVA HOT SPRINGS 85 m. (544 pop.) is one of the
most phenomenal spots in the State, but Idahoans have
been too busy taking the rough edges off an empire to
give it much interest. Natatoriums, it is true, have been
established there, two by the State and one by the town ;
and there is a fully equipped sanitarium. This town, sit-
uated on the lovely Portneuf River at the base of great
cliffs, has waters which, in both volume and therapeutic
value, are said to be among the most remarkable springs
known. For centuries the Indians paid tribute here to
the Great Spirit for the curative properties of these hot
springs and set this spot aside as neutral ground to be
shared in peace by all tribes. The daily flow from the hot
springs here, each with a different mineral content, is
6,711,000 gallons. The springs have an average of 962.33
TOURTHREE 227
parts of mineral content per million. It is locally claimed
that the mineral content of these springs is higher than
that of any other hot spring in the North American Con-
tinent or in Europe.
Both the State and City natatoriums have large indoor
pools, the better one of which is the first. The State also
has an outdoor pool, called the Mud Bath, which is amaz-
ingly characterized by the varying degrees in the tem-
perature of its waters. It is not a large pool, but a swim-
mer can stroke from almost cold water into hot water
and through various degrees of cold and warmth between
the two extremes. This circumstance owes to the fact
that thirty springs of varying temperature pour into this
pool. Three springs, the Ha-Wah-Na, the Sulphur, and
the Iron, have a total dissolved content of minerals of more
than nine hundred and fourteen hundred respectively.
Just below the balcony of the Riverside Inn runs the clear
cold water of the Portneuf River with hot springs steam-
ing almost at its edge.
Against the town to the south is a great mountain
that is almost a solid pile of unquarried building stone,
which because of its strength and lightness has been
characterized by engineers as one of the best yet found.
It can be seen in two cabins across the river from the
Mud Bath, and in cigarette trays in the Inn. Interesting,
too, are other rock formations of Paleozoic limestones,
shales, sandstones, and quartzites. Upon the river within
the radius of a mile are fifty small waterfalls; and the
smoke holes of old volcanoes are within hiking distance.
The canyons and glens offer camping retreats, and fishing
in the river is good for a stream so accessible.
At 97 m. is the junction with U S 91. (See Tour 1, Sec.
b.) U S 30 N turns north here and follows the Portneuf
River and Canyon, the second of which is rich in historic
lore. With its abrupt walls and innumerable crevices, cut
in limestones and shales, it was a favorite hide-out for
Indians and for white men of prey. It was here in 1865 that
228 IDAHO
a stage carrying several passengers and $60,000 was be-
trayed by its driver to a gang led by Jim Locket, a notori-
ous villain. Two passengers were killed and their bodies
buried in a gulch near the scene of the crime. Another
robbery occurred not far south of Pocatello in a grove of
trees near the Big Elbow of the river. The robbers, ten in
number and said to have been terrifically villainous of as-
pect, held up the Wells, Fargo stage, murdered six of the
seven passengers, and made off with $110,000 in gold dust.
INKOM 109 m. is the home of the largest cement plant
in Idaho. For its materials the factory draws on the moun-
tain of lime rock that stands against the village.
POCATELLO 122 m. (4,464 alt.; 16,471 pop.).
Railroad station: Oregon Short Line, end of W. Bonneville St.
Bus station: Union Pacific Stages, Fargo Building, S. Main St.
Airport, municipal: (McDougall Field). Nat. Park Airways, 6 m.
N. W.
Golf courses: Ross Park (municipal), south of city, 9 holes. Uni-
versity course, back of Red Hill and near university, 9 holes.
It is the seat of Bannock County, the second in size of
the Idaho cities, the principal gateway by railway, high-
way, and air to the Pacific Northwest, and one of the
largest railway centers west of the Mississippi.
It stands upon an area which formerly was a portion
of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, and was named by
the builders of the Union Pacific Railroad for a friendly
Indian leader who helped to secure tribal consent for the
transfer of needed rights of way and building sites within
the reservation to the then Utah Northern. Although
the latter had been practically completed by Brigham
Young, the Mormon leader, from Salt Lake City to Butte
in 1879, Pocatello did not take form until 1882, when,
with a collection of tents, it became the junction point of
these two rail properties.
Because of its fortunate position as the center of in-
termountain arterial transportation, the growth of the
city has since then been both substantial and constant.
TOURTHREE 229
In addition to its rail facilities, it is directly served by
Federal highways U S 30 N and U S 91, and has twice
daily air mail, express, and passenger service. Because
of its extensive railroad plant (the largest between
Omaha and the Pacific Coast), it has an East and West
Side, each with substantial downtown business and resi-
dential sections. On the East Side are the wholesale dis-
trict, city and county buildings, three of the city parks,
some of the better homes, and the spacious campus of
the University of Idaho, Southern Branch. In FRAZIER
HALL, on the University grounds, is the recently estab-
lished historical museum, featuring Idaho records, relics,
and specimens. Through the West Side of the city flows
the romantic Portneuf River, prolific producer of beaver,
royal giver, and entertainer of many famous mountain
men. On this side of the city, too, are additional city
parks, IRVING JUNIOR STADIUM, the SENIOR HIGH
SCHOOL, the BANNOCK COUNTY MEMORIAL BUILD-
ING, more of the finer homes, and the larger apartment
houses of the city.
South, and a little way beyond the city limits, is ROSS
PARK with grassy slopes, shady retreats, a swimming
pool, a zoo, playgrounds, picnic grounds, and one of the
finest golf courses in the State. Five miles farther south,
at Black Rock at the very beginning of the Union Pacific
ascent of the great Continental Divide, one stands at
the principal of the rail outlets to the Pacific Coast which
eminent engineers have been able to locate on the west
slope of the Intermountain Rockies.
Southwest, and adjoining the city, is the MINK
CREEK RECREATIONAL AREA, including many im-
proved picnic grounds, the POCATELLO GAME PRE-
SERVE, containing one thousand head of elk and many
deer, JUSTICE PARK, CAMP TENDOY, and KINPORT
PEAK. At the summit of Kinport is a roster of names of
all who have climbed to this eminence for a view of the
surrounding country. Beyond is Arbon Valley and its f er-
230 'IDAHO
tile, rolling "dry" lands which produce nearly a million
bushels of grain annually.
At Pocatello is the junction with U S 91 (see Tour 1,
Sec. b).
Section b. Pocatello to Boise, 268 m.
This section of Tour 3 lies through the Snake River Valley
and roughly parallels the river during most of its length.
The road is hard surfaced throughout. Customary ac-
commodations.
U S 30 N goes north and west out of Pocatello. Upon
the right 6 m. is the airport, and running north on the
west side of it is a country lane.
Right on this lane is the MEADER TROUT FARM 1 m., well worth a
visit. Visitors are welcome but they must leave before sundown, for
at this hour several huge savage dogs are freed to patrol the proper-
ties during the night. This plant has several ponds, and any time
after spring spawning hundreds of trout (chiefly rainbow) of all
sizes are to be seen here, with so many in any pond that the water is
black with them. These fish are fed chiefly with horseflesh, and in
every year dozens of womout hacks are slain and ground up and
stored in the cold rooms of the farm's hydroelectric plant.
To the right now, but not visible, is Snake River, which
is tributary to the Columbia, but larger. Flowing a dis-
tance of 1,000 miles and forming 42 per cent of the Colum-
bia River system, it drains 109,000 square miles, including
western Wyoming, all of Idaho except the north and the
extreme southeastern corner, the northwest corner of
Utah, the northeast corner of Nevada, eastern Oregon, and
the southeast corner of Washington. The extreme length
or breadth of its basin is 450 miles. For more than half its
distance it flows through a gorge, and has already upon it
and its feeders 80 reservoirs with a combined storage ca-
pacity of 5,700,000 acre-feet. In addition to these, there
are 96 known but undeveloped sites with an estimated
storage capacity of 7,746,000 acre-feet, and 70 hydro-
TOURTHREE 231
electric plants which use less than one tenth of its
potential power. It is fed by 56 rivers, of which 17 are
regarded as major tributaries, and by 74 large creeks. Its
source is in the southeast corner of Yellowstone Park at
an elevation of 9,600 feet. It flows southward through
Wyoming to the Hoback River, where it swings westward
into a deep canyon which runs to the Idaho-Wyoming
Line. Its first 61 miles in Idaho lie in a canyon, but at
Heise it opens upon the Snake River Valley, and for 200
miles to Milner is not deeply intrenched. At Milner it
cuts a gorge for 200 miles to emerge again at Enterprise
and flow over a plain to Huntington, where again for 189
miles it lies far below the surrounding terrain. At
Lewiston it enters Washington and flows 141 miles to its
junction with Columbia River at Pasco.
In the earliest geologic period most of the Snake River
Basin was covered by a shallow sea in which were de-
posited great quantities of sand and mud. These have
hardened into quartzites. After the sea receded there was
little invasion by marine waters but there were tre-
mendous upliftings of granitic materials which were con-
solidated into the Idaho batholith and its smaller but
related masses of rock. Following this there was an epi-
demic of volcanic upheavals and explosive eruptions ac-
companied by flows of lava and ash. Erosion came next
and slow patient sculpturings by glaciers, but the region
was not yet ready to accept its alluvial deposits, and
tremors and gigantic quakings shook Idaho from time to
time, and basaltic uplifts rose like black monuments on
the landscape. Within recent centuries earthquakes have
been infrequent and never severe, but there are still deep
and troubled rumblings, and not inconceivably in some
future time this valley may again steam and tremble
under boiling tides. After peace came Snake River set-
tled down to the business of eroding its gorge. In the
upper valley here it goes too lazily to achieve much, but
beyond Milner it gathers speed and anger and has been
most impressively busy.
232 IDAHO
On the right at 20 m. the AMERICAN FALLS RESER-
VOIR comes into view, the first and largest of many
between Pocatello and the Oregon Line. Though it has a
capacity of 1,700,000 acre-feet and through a network of
canals and diversions serves 600,000 acres, it is less spec-
tacular by far than many which are to be seen elsewhere.
The dam is a mile wide and has a maximum height of 87
feet. The reservoir it created is 12 miles wide, 26 miles
long, and covers an area of 56,000 acres. The cost of the
dam was $3,060,000, but the cost of the whole project it-
self ran to three times that sum. It is a concrete struc-
ture with a rolled earth-filled embankment at either end.
AMERICAN FALLS 25 m. (4,330 alt. ; 1,280 pop.) was
once a favorite camping spot on the Old Oregon Trail.
Or at least the former site was, for American Falls was
moved when the reservoir was created, and the thrust of
an elevator out of the lake marks the area where the town
once stood. A railroad, a power plant, and a highway
were also moved. This town is the center of a huge dry-
farming wheat belt and the gateway to reclamation proj-
ects that reach for 170 miles westward. Just below the
dam here is the bridge of the Union Pacific, and just be-
low the bridge is Idaho Power Company's largest hydro-
electric plant. Close by the plant is the TRENNER ME-
MORIAL PARK, dedicated to an engineer who helped in
the development of this region. A rocky terrace made of
lava from the Craters of the Moon, a fountain and a
landscaped lawn, a lava monolith, and a miniature power
station make of this park not only a point of interest but
also a pleasant contrast to the arid country roundabout.
The park is illuminated at night. Here, too, is one of the
State's largest fish hatcheries, with a capacity of 2,500,000
fingerlings in a season. Of unusual interest to persons
who fancy old historic trails is the fact that a part of the
Oregon Trail can still be seen within the townsite and for
a short distance south.
At 27 m. is the junction with an unimproved road.
TOUR THREE 233
Left on this road are INDIAN SPRINGS 1 m., where pools and
baths are available. This resort is one of the most popular of the hot
mineralized springs of the State, not only because of its reputed
therapeutic value but also because it is easily accessible.
At 35 m. is one of the most famous landmarks and
monuments in the State. To understand what happened
here in 1862 it is necessary to forget the telephone lines
and highways, the towns and dams, and remember that
this bleak road is a part of the most famous trail the
North American Continent has known. It is necessary
to imagine an arid region of sagebrush and loneliness, of
unexplored mountains and deep rivers, with a flat and un-
obtrusive and desolate wagon road taking its endless way
over the gray miles. It was here, on August 10 in 1862,
that a train of eleven wagons, drawn by ox teams and
carrying twenty-five families from Iowa, took its journey,
with the dust in the ruts felly-deep and with nothing in
the distance save the obscure outline of ragged stone and
beyond this the hot luminous haze of a far valley. These
eleven wagons were the vanguard of many more, all of
them headed uncertainly for Oregon. The ox teams moved
slowly over a country that seemed interminable; and
those who have followed the trails that pioneers blazed,
who now travel by train and air and automobile, find it
difficult to realize even obscurely the thirst and weariness,
the intolerable drag of the journey week after week, the
bleak sameness of earth and sky and sun. It is hard to
realize that one of these ox-drawn wagons was an hour
covering a mile and a half, or that the short distance
from American Falls to the rocks ahead filled a large part
of a day. This caravan had spent nearly the whole sum-
mer crossing Nebraska and Wyoming and Idaho to this
point, and these travelers were weary at heart, and the
fabulous valleys of Oregon seemed as remote as ever.
There were landmarks, some of which they had passed,
some of which they were now looking for in the pale
distance. Without maps, without anything but a peak
or a notched butte in a week's journey, they knew only
234 IDAHO
that they had come hundreds of miles, had hundreds still
to go.
The driver of the first wagon, sitting high on the
seat, was doubtless looking ahead, trying to distinguish
between the blue gray of the desert and the gray blue of
the sky. Behind him in the crawling wagons, reaching
back for a quarter of a mile, were men and women sitting
in stupor, with tired flesh and tired eyes; were solemn
children who had sat in these loaded wagons week after
week, going they hardly knew where ; and drivers gazing
back over the enormously unreal distance out of which
they had come and wondering about the distance ahead.
This was a hot day in August with not a tree in sight
and with no breeze. The yellow earth was turned up by
the wheels in lazy blinding clouds that rolled back from
wagon to wagon and settled upon the freight until the
travelers could write their names in dust an inch deep.
The driver on that front seat was looking at the Snake
River Gorge, now appearing on the right, and at the
blurred piles ahead of him, and was perhaps remembering
that camp in this night would be pitched on bottom lands
of the river. He probably was not suspicious. When he
came to the crest of a hill and looked down a long slope
to great piles of stone on either side of the trail, his
gaze reached beyond to the river, now a visible oasis in
a landscape of scalding sun. For fifteen minutes the
wagons plowed in their furrows down this hill toward the
bluffs and it was not until the leader had passed into the
small gorge, with refreshing shadow on either side, that
a sudden movement in the stones above brought every
man to a trigger. . . .
The sudden confusion and panic, the awful horror of
the next few minutes, it is almost impossible to realize.
The bare chronicle reads that nine were slain, six were
scalped, many were injured, and a few miraculously es-
caped. The chronicle declares that wagons were plundered
and burned and the beasts were driven off ; and that on the
next day the next wagon train reached this spot and
TOUR THREE 235
buried the dead. And here, on a site now known as
MASSACRE ROCKS, sixty-five years later, a monument
was erected.
At 37 m. there is a Pioneer Monument (L) .
At 38 m. is the junction with an unimproved road.
Left on this road is EMIGRANT ROCK 3 m., a stone twenty feet
high on which are registered the autographs of early travelers.
Some of the names carved into the rock or even some of those painted
on with black axle grease as long ago as 1849 are still visible.
For eight more miles U S 30 N follows the river and
then climbs to arid plains that have not been reclaimed by
irrigation. On a clear day the Lost River Mountains are
visible in the north, and on the south is a spur of the
Goose Creek Range. The hilltops now offer a broad pano-
ramic view of the Snake River Valley and the haze of Bur-
ley and Twin Falls areas. At 49 m. the highway crosses
Raft River.
RUPERT 73 m. (4,200 alt. ; 2,250 pop.) is one of the
few towns in Idaho that were planned and not allowed to
grow aimlessly. Laid out by the engineering department
of the Reclamation Service and named for the engineer
who planned it, Rupert looked ambitiously into the future
and arranged itself around a central plaza. Like the cities
lying westward, it is of recent origin, having sprung al-
most overnight out of this vast semiarid region into which
water was poured. At the turn of the present century
this whole area from American Falls to Buhl 142 m. was
a domain of sagebrush and coyotes, bunch grass and
brome grass, cheat grass and lizards. Swiftly, section
by section, it has been transformed into a huge irrigated
garden, and many towns have mushroomed within it and
kept growing. The long sweep down the valley ahead is
today one of Idaho's three principal agricultural areas.
Right from Rupert an unimproved road leads to the MINIDOKA
DAM 15 m. The Minidoka Reclamation Project involved the construc-
tion of a rock-filled dam across Snake River, together with a main
canal and its tributaries and an elaborate pumping plant. This
latter, operated by power generated at the dam, has three units,
236 IDAHO
each lifting water twenty feet. The three of them require ten
thousand horsepower of electric energy to operate. The diversion
system and the pumping plant together irrigate about 116,000
acres at an initial cost of $6,500,000. The body of water impounded,
now called Lake Walcott (in honor of a director of the U. S. Geo-
logical Survey), has a capacity of 107,000 acre-feet. There is such
prodigal generation of current here that Minidoka County is said to
be one of the most prolific rural patrons of electricity in the United
States.
BURLEY, 82 m. (4,240 alt. ; 3,826 pop.) is the center
of another reclamation project of 121,000 acres and 17,-
000 homes. It is one of the two most thriving cities in
this part of Idaho, but came into being only recently
through the miracle of water and irrigation. Today it has
an alfalfa-meal mill with a capacity of 125 tons, a beet-
sugar factory with a capacity of 800 tons, and the largest
potato-flour mill in the world.
At Burley is the junction with U S 30 S to Ogden,
Utah. Out of this city are side tours to unusual points of
interest, though these lie at some distance.
1. Left from Burley on U. S. 30 S is DECLO 8 m. and then L on a
side road is ALBION 6 m., the seat of one of the State's two normal
schools. Though the campus here is lovely, of greater interest, per-
haps, is the fact that Albion itself is a ghost town. It was once a
county seat and on a main thoroughfare of travel into Utah, but to-
day it is an assortment of decaying buildings that are precariously
supported and kept out of complete ruin by the college upon the
town's western flank. It is true, of course, as educators here declare,
that most of these buildings are richly invested with fact and lore
of a time now dead.
Perhaps the most beautiful spot in the Minidoka Forest is LAKE
CLEVELAND at the head of Howell Canyon on Mount Harrison.
This is just south of Albion over good road that climbs the moun-
tain; and although the highway does not approach the lake, it is
accessible by a short and easy trail. In this vicinity there are, in
fact, five glacial lakes. There are campsites throughout the length
of Howell Canyon, fishing in adjacent streams, and magnificent
views from Mount Harrison itself.
2. Left out of Burley over graveled road via OAKLEY 24 m.
and thence over country road is the SILENT CITY OF ROCKS
38 m. This city covers an area of twenty-five square miles and lies
almost six miles from north to south. In general this city is a
weird congregation of eroded cathedrals and towers and shattered
walls. Because formerly it was the junction of two famous trails —
TOUR THREE 237
the Sublette Cutoff and the California Road — it has recorded upon
its walls one of the largest chronicles known of transcontinental
travel. There are thousands of names and dates, as well as mes-
sages left for persons who were soon to follow; and it is evident
that some of the more spectacular and foolhardy scribes must have
been suspended by ropes from the tops of the cliffs, so high and
remote from human footing are the records which they left.
Unlike the Gooding City of Rocks (see Tour 5, Sec. b) this one
has been carved by erosion from an enormous dome of granite
which was anciently pushed up here into a mountain of its own.
Because the weathered granite has become indurated or case-
hardened on the surface while its inner structure has often more
rapidly disintegrated, the city presents the extremely bizarre aspect
not only of mosques and monoliths and turrets but also of bathtubs
and hollow cones and shells and strange little pockets and caverns.
Bathtub Rock itself towers two hundred feet, and can be climbed
to its summit whereon is a large depression that catches rain-
fall, in which, according to Indian legend, a bath before sunrise
restored youth to the aged. Near the southern end are the gleaming
turrets and fortresses standing upon a low saddle against the
road. North from these are spires that rise two hundred and fifty
feet from the floor of the basin and suggest from some distance
the famous sky line of New York City. Others are rock brothers
of the curious formations in Zion Canyon in southern Utah. Still
others, fantastically grouped, look as if heathen temples had been
rocked with dynamite and had rearranged their structure but had
refused to fall.
Close scrutiny leads, for those anthropomorphically minded, to
formations even more curious. A few stones look as if they had
been sculptured by human hands and many so closely resemble one
thing and another as to have been named. There are the Old Hen
with Her Chicks, the Dragon's Head, the Giant Toadstool, the
Elephant Rock, and the Old Woman. The upper surface of the
Giant Toadstool has been hardened by arid winds and now has an
overhanging cap, but the massive body below from cap to root is
more rapidly disintegrating. Pedestal Rock is a casehardened
boulder which rests upon a narrow staff. The whole chaotic,
drunkenly fantastic region runs, indeed, through such a variety of
erosive change that it is said to surpass in weird picturesqueness
the famous Buffalo Rocks in the Buffalo Mountains of Australia.
For one not interested in strange formations of stone there are
buried treasures to be searched for here. According to fact (or
possibly legend) an overland stage from Kelton to Boise was ac-
costed in this city in 1878, and $90,000 in gold was taken by the
scoundrels. One of the bandits was slain, and the other subse-
quently died in prison; but before his death he told where he had
buried the treasure among five junipers. Five cedars growing in
the shape of a heart were found in the city long ago, and frantic
excavations were undertaken, but it appears that the treasure is
still undisturbed. Interesting, too, are the mountains roundabout.
238 IDAHO
MOUNT INDEPENDENCE, the highest peak in Idaho south of
Hailey, rises 10,550 feet, and not far from it are the five lovely INDE-
PENDENCE LAKES. Because few persons ever make this climb, the
fish in the waters, an explorer reports, are apathetic from either
starvation or boredom. The return via Oakley passes close to the
OAKLEY DAM and the GOOSE CREEK RESERVOIR. The
BOSTETTER PUBLIC CAMP, with accommodations for three
hundred persons, is twenty miles west in the MINIDOKA NA-
TIONAL FOREST. The setting is among lodgepole and aspen, gar-
dens of wild flowers, and pure mountain streams.
This region abounds, at some distance from the city, in camping
sites and in fishing and hunting. New roads have recently opened the
natural beauty of the Minidoka National Forest on the south, and by
way of Oakley the traveler can enter the mountains and canyons and
make week-end camps among the evergreens by the streams. Deer
have been protected throughout the year for a long while in this
forest, and these animals, more abundant now, can often be seen
from the roads. Within the hunting season, ruffled and pintail grouse
are plentiful; and Chinese pheasants are common throughout the
length of this and the Hagerman Valley to Bliss. In the streams are
whitefish, perch, and trout.
At 96 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Right on this road is MILNER DAM 4 m. which, like Minidoka, is a
structure of earth and concrete. It stands on the historic site former-
ly known as The Cedars. Less impressive than some other dams in
the State, it marks, nevertheless, the most successful large reclama-
tion project in Idaho. Undertaken by the Twin Falls Land and Water
Company in 1903, it was completed in 1905, and impounds upon Snake
River enough water to irrigate 240,000 acres on the south side of the
river and 32,000 on the north. The storage of 80,000 acre-feet is
supplemented by a right to 98,000 acre-feet in the Jackson Reser-
voir in Wyoming and 155,480 acre-feet in the American Falls
Reservoir. The number of acres actually farmed under the South
Side Milner Project is 203,000, and the number under the North
Side is 128,000. Together these form the largest contiguous irri-
gated acreage in the United States.
The benefits of reclamation in Idaho can be fully realized when
it is remembered that thirty years ago this area was sagebrush
terrain, worthless save for minor grazing, and that today the value
of all holdings under the Milner Project with its eight hundred
miles of canals, its thousands of miles of smaller laterals, its
utilities and lands and railroads, is in excess of $75,000,000.
The present town of MILNER, just below the dam, is notable for
two historic reasons. It was here on Snake River in 1811 that the
Astorians under Wilson Price Hunt lost a boat and one of their
members in the treacherous rapids. Because of the melodramatic
behavior of the water here, Donald McKenzie named the spot
Caldron Lynn, meaning water boiler or a boiling kettle. This spot
TOURTHREE 239
also, because of a grove of cedar trees, was a favorite camping spot
for immigrants over the Oregon Trail.
Right from Milner on a country road is the strange BURLEY WIND
CAVE 3.5 m. It is a curious phenomenon, not because of its
commonplace interior or the formation of its stone, but because
tides of wind periodically flow into the cave or out of it. In the
stone wall are numerous small holes no larger than a finger and
through these the air everlastingly whistles, suggesting that there
are remote and unexplored interiors with vents leading to the
surface. This cave, too, like other phenomena westward, is evidence
of the subterranean mysteries of central Idaho out of which came
the volcanic pourings of the Craters of the Moon.
Paralleling U S 30, Snake River cuts a deep gorge
through lava that is similar to that of the Colorado River
across the Colorado Plateau. Because of varying degrees
in the hardness of the stone and consequent variations in
the ease and speed of erosion, the river has sculptured for
itself several waterfalls, including Dry Creek, Twin, Sho-
shone, Pillar, Auger, and the Upper and Lower Salmon.
Shoshone, and Twin, too, before the higher one was ap-
propriated by a power company, have been outstanding
among the waterfalls of the United States. U S 30 is
now, in fact, entering one of Idaho's most picturesque
wonderlands.
HANSEN 115 m. is the junction with country roads.
1. Left on country road is a historic spot, the first trading station
west of Fort Hall, 7 m. It was a camping site, a pony express
station, and then a settlement in 1863. The old store still stands.
2. Right from Hansen a country road leads to the HANSEN
BRIDGE 4 m., which spans the Snake River Gorge between Twin
Falls and Jerome Counties. Formerly visited by many persons, this
bridge is less an object of interest since the completion of the more
impressive one west of it. Even so, this bridge, characterized in
the Scientific American a few years ago as the highest suspension
bridge in North America, is worth a visit. It is 345 feet high and
688 feet long and is suspended on enormous cables. The gorge here
is narrower than below and offers from the bridge a beautiful sum-
mary of what time and a mighty river have been able to do with
lava rock. In the sagebrush region three miles north of the bridge
are the CLAY CAVES. Not so unusual by any means as many other
caves in the State, these are nevertheless a curious object for
many persons who enter them with gas lanterns and rubber boots.
240 IDAHO
The floor is of sticky clay. The caves have an aggregate length of
about five city blocks, an average width of twenty to thirty feet,
and a high ceiling studded in a part of it with stalactites. The
entrance is little larger than a badger hole but even the portly
visitor can effect a passage if he is willing to lie on his belly and
exert himself.
A half mile down the river from the bridge is the ghost of
SPRINGTOWN, dating back to 1870. It ran through six turbulent
years, and today the mud huts of the Chinese (who usually followed
to exploit what the whites scorned) are still to be seen.
TWIN FALLS 124 m. (3,492 alt.; 8,787 pop.) is the
largest city and the metropolis of south-central Idaho.
Three miles south of Snake River and on the bank of Rock
Creek, it stands on a gently rolling watershed which was
covered long ago by lava flows that are now the bedrock
under the silt that has been blown in from surrounding
mountains and old lake beds. Because there has been
severe erosion and a plateau built up from a deep basin,
the area from here to the Hagerman Valley forty miles
westward is an unusually fertile field for the paleontolo-
gist. Covered anciently by a great sea and later by tropi-
cal jungle, this whole region has been discovered to be
the repository of dinosaurs and ammonites, coral and sea
shell. But the overlain soil in the Twin Falls country is
also uncommonly deep, and in consequence of its richness
has made this part of Idaho notable in crop yields. Twin
Falls itself has sometimes been called the magic city, a
characterization owing to the circumstance of its having
risen so suddenly and swiftly after water reclaimed this
arid valley. It was settled chiefly by families from the
Middle West and is one of the few cities in Idaho that
were carefully and enviably planned. It is not, unfortun-
nately, on a railway trunk line, being served in this
respect only by a somewhat inadequate side branch ; but it
has frequent motor coach service in all directions and air
service daily making connections with points east and
west. The municipal airport is five miles south.
Among points of interest within the city itself are
several small museums. The CRABTREE (admission 25
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Perrine Coulee Falls
Shoshone Falls (taken af night with the falls illuminated by searchlights)
TOURTHREE 241
cents), 211 Addison Avenue West, has an excellent collec-
tion of Indian artifacts, including an assortment of ar-
rowheads from all parts of the United States. In addition
to these are a few fossils and archaeological relics. The
WEAVER MUSEUM (admission free) , 149 Main Avenue
West, has a collection of guns, fossils, curios, and mummi-
fied remains. WHITAKER'S TAXIDERMIST SHOP AND
MUSEUM (admission free), 216 Second Avenue South,
has in addition to Indian artifacts an interesting group of
mounted game animals, wild birds, moths, and butterflies.
The GASKILL BOTANICAL GARDEN (admission 15
cents), 266 Blue Lakes Boulevard, is a spot beautifully
landscaped. Surrounded by trees, shrubs, and vines, the
concrete pools within are stocked with water plants and
fish. The GARDEN OF YESTERDAY (admission 25
cents) is just out of the city southeast: it is noteworthy
for its miniature replicas of frontier life, including a tiny
log house and a gristmill which is operated by water from
a ditch. Another item of unusual historic interest is a
natural cave in the wall of Rock Creek Canyon (R). This
cave was the first jail in Twin Falls County, and prisoners
were incarcerated here until Federal statute made it illegal
to keep persons below the surface of the earth. Just south
of the depot is a private fishery from which rainbow trout
can be bought fresh from the ponds.
Twin Falls is at the junction with U S 93 (see Tour 5,
Sec. b).
1. Three miles out on Blue Lakes Boulevard (R) is a left turn to
a tollgate on the rimrock, where 25 cents admits the visitor to an
area phenomenal in several respects. There is from the rim a
magnificent view of the gorge, which here is seven hundred feet
in depth on either side and almost sheer, and of the Twin Falls-
Jerome bridge (see Tour 5, Sec. b). Far below on the river is the
famous PERRINE RANCH, which Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., once
pondered buying before deciding to settle in England. From the
rim it is one and one-fourth miles across to Blue Lakes and
a narrow but safe road leads down and approaches the ranch
through an incomparable corridor of poplars, and comes to the
PERRINE MUSEUM, which contains Indian artifacts, fossil
remnants, and antiques. Admission to this was covered at the toll-
242 IDAHO
gate. The Perrine orchard here is noted for its growing of rare
fruits. The road leaves the ranch and crosses the river by bridge
and proceeds to BLUE LAKES which are small lovely jewels as
blue as the sky. They are in a tributary on the north wall of the
main canyon. The head of this alcove is an amphitheater with
walls three hundred feet high and with no stream entering from
the surface or the plain above. The water boiling up from the
springs in the amphitheater is clear but is blue and slightly
opalescent because of fine siltlike materials held in suspension.
These lakes, with bottoms of clear white sand, are well stocked
with trout. The PERRINE COULEE FALLS, also in this tiny
basin, is a small waterfall that drops 197 feet as an overflow drain
of irrigated lands above the rimrock. It is most impressive for the
person who drives behind it and looks up at the water descending
in a slender deluging veil.
2. Because less impressive, TWIN FALLS 6 m. should be visited be-
fore Shoshone. North of the city is a right turn off U S 93 that
parallels the power line. The twins are no longer twins: the
larger one was taken over in 1935 by the Idaho Power Company;
and though its plant here is notable for its compactness and
beauty, it is hardly adequate compensation for the loss of the
second mightiest waterfall in Idaho. For the larger of the twins
was a plunge of 180 feet, with considerably more than half the
river poured over a narrow escarpment into a terrific column that
lost none of its concentrated power. Today only the north fall
remains. Below the diversion dam the river now tumbles over
wild cascades and delivers nearly its whole volume where formerly
it spilled less than a third.
SHOSHONE FALLS is on the river three miles below, and can be
reached by leaving the return road (R) at the sign or by turning
off U S 93 (R) at the sign. First discovered by Wilson Price Hunt
in 1811, and thereupon for many decades the chief attraction in
Idaho for the thousands of immigrants passing through to Oregon,
this waterfall is considerably higher than Niagara and is, when
reservoirs do not vitiate its grandeur, in some respects more im-
pressive. The river here plunges in a sheer drop of 212 feet over a
great basaltic horseshoe rim nearly a thousand feet wide. Formerly
the spectacle was, and sometimes still is, illuminated by flood
lights. Idaho Power's diversion dam has produced a series of
cascades which are an appropriate prelude to the falls below. The
gn^eat plunge is against the south wall where the water goes down
like a tumbling mountain of snow with a part of its body rolling
in pale green veins. At the farther side over a wide and almost
perfect arc the flood spills in an enormous foaming sheet. After
viewing the falls from the lookout tower, the visitor should turn at
the rimrock to the brink for a view at greater distance. A visiting
newspaper editor once wrote: "Never anywhere else was there such
a scene; never any^vhere else so beautiful a picture hung in so rude
a frame. But to feel all the awe and to mark all the splendor that
TOURTHREE 243
comes of the mighty display, one must climb down the steep descent
to the river's bank below."
But this is not the whole story of Shoshone Falls. It is one of
Idaho's scenic losses that so much of the water of this river must
be impounded for irrigation and that these waterfalls along here
have to be robbed of their thunderous downpouring. During years
of light snowfall upon the watersheds, about enough water goes
over this wide escarpment in August to fill a teacup. After heavy
winters, as in the spring of 1936, the reservoirs are soon filled, and
the full flow of the river is delivered downstream. And so it is,
then, that this spectacle varies a great deal from year to year. In
May of 1936 Shoshone Falls were roaring mightily in their old
splendor, and the circumstance was so unusual after many rela-
tively dry years that persons hearing of the restoration came a
long way to see them. In next year or the next, the flow may be
too little to keep the escarpment wet.
It was inevitable that Shoshone Falls should have become a part
of Indian folklore. The Shoshoni Indians called the falls Pah-chu-
laka which means "hurling waters leaping." In the gloomy gorge
above the falls there was, long ago, the trysting place of a deep-
chested Shoshoni buck and the slender wild girl whom he loved.
Their last meeting was here on a pile of rocks which overlooked the
plunging waters. He went away to scalp with deft incisions and
then to lift the shaggy mane of white men with a triumphant shout;
and she came daily to stand by the thundering avalanche and
remember him. That he would return unharmed she did not, with
the ageless resourcefulness of women, ever allow herself to doubt.
But time passed, and the moons that came and ripened were many,
and she still came nightly to stand on the brink and watch the
changeless journeying of the water. And it was here that she
stood one black night above the roar of the flood when a warrior
stepped out of shadow and whispered to her and then disappeared.
As quiet as the flat stone under her feet, she stood for a long
while, looking down into the vault where the waters boiled up
like seething white hills to fill the sky with dazzling curtains and
roll away in convulsed tides. For an hour she gazed do^vn there
two hundred feet to a mad pouring of motion and sound into a
black graveyard of the dead. And then, slowly, she lifted her arms
above her, lifted her head to the fullest curve of her throat, and
stood tiptoe for a moment, poised and beautiful, and then dived
in a long swift arc against the falling white background And
the river at this point and since that hour has never been the same.^
Upon U S 93, northward a half mile, is Idaho's most beautiful
bridge. (See Tour 5, Sec. b.) Up the northern bank of the river
from this bridge to a point two and a half miles above Shoshone
Falls is a gorge that opens off the main canyon of the river. It can
iThis story was told many years ago to J. A. Harrington by a
Shoshoni Indian on the Fort Reservation named Quish-in-demi, and
is used here with Mr. Harrington's permission.
244 IDAHO
be reached by country road or by boat up the river above the water-
fall. In early days this terrifying rugged basin was used as a hide-
out by a gang of notorious horse thieves, and is today known as the
Devils Corral. More than a hundred underground chambers have
been discovered in or close by the Snake River Canyon along here.
West from Twin Falls on U S 30 is an unobstructed
view on the right of Snake River clear to the Sawtooth
Mountains. At 130 m. is the junction with U S 93 (L)
(see Tour 5, Sec. b), and at 132 m. is FILER, which can
almost be regarded as the home of the famous Idaho white
bean, inasmuch as nine bean plants operate here.
Right out of Filer by country road are AUGER FALLS 5 m. on
Snake River. The water here pours through a partly obstructed
channel over a series of escarpments, and twists and spirals
strangely in its descent.
BUHL 142 m. (3,793 alt.; 1,883 pop.) is flanked by
rolling country on the east that looks in June like Iowa.
Named for Frank Buhl, an early empire builder, this
thrifty, well-kept town is one of the most prepossessing
in the State.
1. Left from Buhl over surfaced road south and west is CASTLE-
FORD 11 m., and thence 1 m. west, 1 m. north, and 3.5 m. west to
BALANCED ROCK. From Castleford the traveler should follow
the signs. He will come first to the gorge of a stream that goes
under the name of either Salmon River or Salmon Creek. This
gorge is entered and crossed, with a range of monuments on the
farther side at the end of which Balanced Rock is the climax. It
can be seen against the sky from the road, but for the fullest
realization of the miracle of it the visitor should climb the moun-
tainside and view it from all angles. The more closely it is ex-
amined at close range the more incredible it seems that this tower
of stone should have weathered so many centuries on so small
a base. But there it stands, in its precarious imperturbability, as a
wonder for everyone who sees it. This balloon-shaped formation
forty feet in height rested, before being reinforced by concrete,
upon a small block of igneous stone that was only one foot by one
and a half feet by three feet in dimensions. There are other marvels
in the canyon of this stream. The colorful pillars and colonnades on
either side look as if a section had been lifted out of Zion Canyon
in Utah. Down the stream and accessible only to those willing to
hike over rugged trails are the PHANTOM WALLS. Not far south
of Castleford is BLOW HOLE, a recently discovered and still quite
unexplored fissure in the earth. Alternate discharge and intake
v-^^^
* i
Balanced Rock
V -"fl*.
f '
i
^
ik<
Icicle Cove
TOURTHREE 245
G. powerful air currents suggest that the cavern is related to
Salmon Canyon eight miles away. In a cliff near the historic Castle-
ford crossing on the river is a formation known as the DEVILS
KITCHEN, a I'oom reached only by a somewhat hazardous descent
down the chimney. For directions to any of these inquiry should
be made in Castleford.
2. Right from Buhl over the Wendell-Buhl highway are CLEAR
LAKES 4 m. in the Snake River Canyon. Sequestered on the north
side of the river and obscured by high cliffs and bushes, these small
beautiful lakes are accessible only by motorboat near Uhrlaubs
Ferry. Though forty feet in depth, these lakes are as lucent as
crystal, and the numerous jets clustered around a large central
spring can be clearly seen gushing from the white sand of the
bottom. Innumerable trout play among the clean floating particles
of sand. These springs are, of course, related to Blue Lakes, to
Thousand Springs, and to all the other water coming from the
Lost Rivers far in the northeast and emerging on the walls of
Snake River.
North out of Buhl on U S 30, Snake River Canyon is
visible on the right at 150 m., and at 152 m. some of the
Thousand Springs can be seen on its wall in the distance.
On the left is the mouth of Salmon Creek, the gorge of
which is a fantastic wonderland through almost its entire
length. The highway now drops down into the lovely
Hagerman Valley. At 156 m. (R) is the Thousand Springs
(sometimes called the Minnie Miller) Farm, which is
internationally known for its blooded Guernsey cattle.
Just beyond the farm are the equally famous THOU-
SAND SPRINGS, though many of these have been ap-
propriated and hidden by a power company. By the time
commercial interests are done with Idaho's waterfalls and
cascading springs there will be nothing to see, many Ida-
hoans believe, except water mains and the roofs over
turbines. Though long a source of mystery to both lay-
men and geologists, it is now believed that the Thousand
Springs are the outlet of buried rivers that get lost in
the lava terrain 150 miles in the northeast (see Tour 4).
"In this stretch also occur a wonderful group of springs
having a combined discharge of more than 5,000 sec-
ond-feet, or enough water to supply all the cities in the
United States of more than 100,000 inhabitants with 120
246 IDAHO
gallons a day for each inhabitant." The whole of central
Idaho, as a matter of fact, seems to be an area of sub-
terranean rivers and possibly cavernous lake beds ; and at
points through this valley a person can put his ear to the
ground and hear deep and troubled rumblings as if a
mighty ocean rolled far under. Across from Thousand
Springs is a ghost town. AUSTIN is still marked by a
cellar, a chimney, some stone walls, and fruit trees that
still bloom in a forgotten orchard.
HAGERMAN 164 m. is a small hamlet in the valley.
At 164.5 m. on U S 30 is a tablet (R) which commemorates
Marcus Whitman, the pioneer missionary who brought the
first wagon across what was to be known later as the Ore-
gon Trail. In the high cliffs above Thousand Springs and in
other places throughout Hagerman Valley, marine fossil
remains are abundant. Besides luxuriant tropical vegeta-
tion, there are also survivals of mastodons, wild hogs, and a
rare species of ancient horse which seems to have been the
immediate forebear of the present beast. The discovery of
the latter was in what at one time was a boggy terrain, pos-
sibly a drinking place, for among the bones of the horses
were those of aquatic animals as well as remnants of frog
and fish. When, during investigations in this valley, dyna-
miting became necessary, a charge blew out the skull of a
mastodon that was buried at a level considerably above
that of the bones of horses. In the same neighborhood were
found the remains of a cat about the size of a cougar, and
this, it is surmised, may be a hitherto unknown species.
Since 1927 several expeditions have been sent into this
region. (See Paleontology in Sec. I, Ch. IX.)
Between Hagerman and Malad River 167 m. there
is a cave on the east wall of the Snake River Gorge which
contains interesting Indian petroglyphs. These have been
interpreted as a story of an Arapahoe massacre. MALAD
RIVER, crossed by U S 30, is said to be the shortest
river in the world ; and it may be for it is only three or
four miles long. This river in springtime is a wild torrent
TOUR THREE 247
of considerable size that is fed from springs related to the
series east of Hagerman and to the many small lakes
sheltered in side canyons which open upon Snake River.
The main source of Malad River is a huge spring which
rises at the foot of a precipice and plunges down in a
chain of cascades. An amazing summary of the subter-
ranean nature of central Idaho is to be found in the fact
that the Malad River "is the only stream in the whole of
southern Idaho from Henrys Fork within 12 miles of
the west boundary of Yellowstone Park, to the Idaho-
Oregon line, a distance measured along Snake River of
fully 450 miles, which, rising in the mountains in the
north, reaches Snake River in the summertime." And
Malad River, because of the demands of irrigation, is
sometimes dry.
The highway now leaves the canyon. At the foot, just
before the ascent begins, is the old Bliss Ranch where
B. M. Bower viTote Good Indian. The evolution of the
winding grade ahead from a crude pack trail through four
different eras of travel is still discernible. At the top of
the ascent is the village of BLISS 173 m., which received
its name from an old-timer and not because its settlers
regarded it as an especially felicitous haven. Bliss is the
junction with State 24, which goes eastward to Gooding
and Shoshone, where it forms a junction with U S 93.
For side tours to the Gooding City of Rocks or to the
Shoshone Ice Caves (see Tour 5, Sec. b).
1. Right out of Bliss a fair road leads to the interesting CLOVER
CREEK SECTION 10 m. After crossing Clover Creek, a left turn
goes one-fourth mile to hot springs which are scalding hot. The
right turn goes one mile to the lakes, in which the water is so
astringent that it will take the hair off a hog. These small lakes
occupy old crater beds. They are known under various names but
one of them is sometimes appropriately called LYE LAKE. Near
the lakes are long tunnels, some with their ceilings tumbled in,
some with natural arched bridges, and some remaining as subter-
ranean caverns that are rarely explored. The hot springs were
held in high esteem by Indians, who often journeyed far to bathe
in the waters. The story is told of one buck who gambled so ex-
pertly that he left the others destitute; whereupon, in angry
248 IDAHO
council, they declared him a bad one but allowed him to accompany
the tribe on its pilgrimage to the spring. He fell ill of spotted
fever, and was thrust into the hot waters to effect a cure and was
dragged out dead.
2. Right out of Bliss over State 24 4 m. to a right turn and thence
over smooth road is the MALAD GORGE 14 m. Of ragged chasms
there is none in the State that excels this one, and none more pic-
turesque. Near its head is a blue lake about as large as a floor, fed
by a waterfall, and below it is the river, cascading and bursting
forth in springs and turning through all the shades of pale green
and blue; it is perhaps Idaho's loveliest stream. On the east rim of
the gorge and running parallel is a deep rift, and descents into it
though hazardous are popular.
West of Bliss, U S 30 enters Elmore County, one of
the chief grazing areas of the State, from which seventy
thousand cattle and two hundred thousand sheep are
shipped annually. KING HILL 190 m. is a historic spot.
Just northwest is a landmark on an early trail from Utah
to Boise; at the foot of the hill the old Overland stage
station was burned by Chief Buffalo Horn in 1878; and
on a flat above the village is the Devils Playground, a
picturesque area of round smooth stones. At 198 m. is
the historic THREE ISLAND FORD on Snake River,
where emigrants headed for Oregon crossed on the Oregon
Trail. An Indian trail still leads down to the river. Indians
used to lie in ambush here by the crossing, and just south
in the historic DEAD MANS GULCH, where an Indian
massacre occurred. Buffalo Horn, an Indian scout with an
honorable discharge from the U. S. Army, nursed a grudge
and turned renegade, and on DEAD MANS FLAT he and
his band killed three miners. Only one of the three graves
has been found.
MOUNTAIN HOME 224 m. (3,142 alt.; 1,243 pop.) is
a rather bleak town set upon a great plateau with sage-
brush landscape rolling away from it on nearly all sides.
1. Right from Mountain Home State 22 provides a combination of
points of interest, excellent fishing and scenery, and beautiful camp-
sites. At 7.5 m. a right turn leads to one of the hottest springs 2 m.
in the State, rich in sulphur and iron, and in favor as a medicinal
drink. Formerly there were accommodations here, but now there are
TOUR THREE 249
only two old bathtubs available to anyone who wishes to take a bath.
At 8 m. on the main road is a monument which marks the site of an
old stage station. State 22 proceeds to CASTLE ROCKS 44 m., an
area of granitic formations which has been called another Garden
of the Gods. Though picturesque, these pinnacles and towers are
hardly comparable with the Gooding or Cassia cities of rocks (see
Tour 5, Sec. b, and Tour 3, Sec. b). At 30 m. on the main road is the
junction with the Atlanta road which goes northward to Sloan's
Gulch and Fall Creek, past spongelike lava flows, past evergreen
forests, and to a left turn 43 m. which leads to lovely TRINITY
LAKES 10 m. RAINBOW LAKE at the head of the gulch is ac-
cessible by footpath. At 55 m. on the main road is PRICE'S RESORT
where outdoor pools and cabins are available. At ABBOT'S RANCH
61 m. horses can be hired for penetrating to excellent fishing or to
vantage points. TRINITY PEAK, perhaps the best of the latter,
has an elevation of 9,473 feet. The hardy adventurer can proceed
to Atlanta, a mountain-walled town and the end of the trail, and
then go down the Middle Fork of the Boise River and the main river
past Arrowrock Dam to Boise. Legend declares that there are
fabulously large and interesting caves in this area north of Moun-
tain Home, but sheepherders who know the region well look down
their noses at the suggestion and profane softly.
2. Left from Mountain Home an improved road leads to another
wonderland. At the bridge upon Snake River sturgeon fishing is
a popular and most exciting sport. The equipment needed is
several hundred feet of stout quarter-inch rope, a few feet of
wire cable for leader, and several strong iron hooks, baited often
with raw beef. One end of the rope is tied to a tree on the bank
and the other is anchored with a stone out in the river. When a
sturgeon is hooked the fun begins. An old-timer here who captures
sturgeon for a living usually hitches a team to the rope and after
a long while of maneuvering drags the river-beast to the shore.
Those who prefer fun that is more hazardous use a boat, manned,
if the sturgeon is a large one, by several persons. The largest one
ever taken from the river weighed nearly a thousand pounds but
most of them are much smaller, and only those weighing less than
two hundred pounds are of excellent flavor. Men fishing here per-
haps ought to be warned of one danger; often a sturgeon when
hooked will lead almost to the bank so gently that the one towing
the line in will imagine he has no catch. But when one of these
big fellows comes close enough to the bank to see his enemy, he
turns with sudden and overwhelming power and speed, and many a
man has had the flesh burned from his palms by a sizzling rope.
BRUNEAU 22 m. is a few shabby buildings lost among lordly
trees, with old-timers sitting in front of the solitary poolhall and
spitting tobacco juice and swapping yarns. Those venturing from
here to the magnificent BRUNEAU CANYON as well as to points
of minor interest along the way should perhaps enlist the services
of an old-timer as a guide. Of Bruneau Canyon it is frequently
250 IDAHO
said that in its entire length of sixty-seven miles there is only one
place where it is possible to take a horse down to water and only
four places where a man can descend. This is an exaggeration: it
depends on the man and the horse. But the gorge is, nevertheless,
one of the deepest narrow canyons on earth. In places it is so
narrow that a man can hurl a rock from rim to rim and so deep
that it is two thousand feet to the river, with the walls almost
sheer. Persons who like to have the breath taken out of them by
lying on a rim and peering over into awful depth can probably find
no better canyon anywhere. In the upper reach is a flanking
canyon called Jarbridge, a Shoshoni word meaning devil. According
to Indian legend, the devil claimed a sacrificial offering from the
tribe when any member offended the Great Spirit. When angry
cries of the devil were heard in the bowels of the earth, announcing
his approach, a medicine man chose the prettiest maiden of the
village and killed her and laid her body on the brink of the gorge.
During the night, Jarbridge came to possess the offering. Rites
to appease his wrath were held as late as 1890, when white men
discovered that the infamous Jarbridge was a mountain lion.i It is
in the Jarbridge area, too, that there is a remarkable natural bridge
which spans the canyon at a height from the bottom of 186 feet.
Because this bridge is difficult to reach, very few persons have
seen it.
Left and east from Bruneau an unimproved road leads to
Indian springs. At 5.3 m. (R) is one of the oldest cemeteries in
Idaho. At 6.8 m. a side road leads (R) .25 m. to SETTLER'S TUN-
NEL. Sixty years ago, to escape from Indians who were on the
warpath, settlers dug a tunnel into a bluff here and shaped it into a
mountain home of several rooms, with vents to let out the smoke of
the fires and with small holes to allow the thrust of guns against ene-
mies. In this excavated home in hard clay no timbers were used, but
the retreat is still in an excellent state of preservation. On the right
at 7.5 m. is the PENCE RANCH, the oldest settlement in the valley,
and out in its meadow is a swimming pool supplied from large hot
springs. The man who first owned these springs was rather eccentric
and declared that these springs must never be commercialized; and in
consequence the swimming is free. A half mile farther the road forks;
the left turn goes by poor road up the east side of the river and leads
to a view of the Bruneau Canyon from the eastern rim. The other
road, more commonly taken, crosses a bridge and then climbs the
hills into the south. At 11.5 m. a left turn leads 1 m. to Hot Creek
and the Indian Bathtub.
HOT CREEK alone is worth a visit. Springs boil out at the end
of a ravine and flow for a mile dowTi it in a large steaming stream
to tumble over a fall into what is known as the INDIAN BATHTUB.
The erosive action of the hot water has sculptured a tub that is
about fifteen feet across, and was, until filled with sediment, about
1 This legend was told to Lulu Lough of Buhl by Rock Creek
Jim, a famous chieftain of the Shoshoni tribe.
TOUR THREE 251
ten feet in depth. Indians not only bathed here formerly but also
drew pictographs on the stone walls. These are largely effaced now,
but years ago visitors could swim in the tub and study Indian
drawings at the same time. This tub is now owned by the United
States Government, which has erected two sheds so that campers
can undress here and bathe. The campsite, though both small and
unimproved, is particularly attractive, inasmuch as a natural hot
bath is on the one side, with a hot stream overflowing it, and a
cold mountain spring is on the other.
From the turn to Hot Creek, the traveler who wishes to view
the canyon can proceed southward as far as he pleases because the
road roughly parallels the gorge. It is always, however, two or
three miles from it, with no good roads leading across; and until
one is built, the traveler who does not wish to abuse his car will
do best to hike over the sagebrush terrain from the road to the
gorge. It is breath-taking from either the eastern or western rim
at any point south of Hot Creek, but is most impressive in its
upper reaches. About seven miles south of the Hot Creek turn, the
road climbs to a high flat tableland and it is across this to the
left that visitors usually walk to the canyon, the outline of which is
visible in the east.
West of Mountain Home on U S 30 the drive to Boise
is over typical Western prairie with typical flora. The
Owyhee Range is on the south, the Boise Mountains on the
north. West of Pocatello the highway follows the Old
Oregon Trail, and of the stories relating to early travel
over it the following is typical. How much of -this Sager
story is legend and how much is fact nobody knows.
Nearly a century ago the Sager family left Missouri
with a wagon train. In Wyoming the parents were
stricken with dysentery, and the train deserted them and
they made their way with their children to Soda Springs
alone. Here both the mother and father died. The chil-
dren went with a caravan to Fort Hall, and it was there
that John, the oldest of the children, a lad of fourteen,
listened to stories of the westward trek to Fort Boise and
the Whitman Mission in Washington. He resolved to set
out alone with his brothers and sisters, and is said to
have approached the gates of Fort Boise weeks later,
holding a babe of four months in his arms. There was no
white woman in the fort, and John thereupon decided to
push on to the Whitman mission. A month later the chil-
dren appeared there: John had a starving infant in his
252 IDAHO
arms, and behind him, perched on the back of an emaci-
ated cow, were his sister of eight with a broken leg and
his sister of five who had supported the leg mile after
mile to keep it from swinging. When they descended from
the cow she sank with an awful groan to the earth and a
moment later was dead. These children (John, Francis
who was eleven, three sisters ranging in age from three
to eight, and an infant) traveled five hundred miles alone,
feeding on the cow and wild fruits and roots, and arriving
gray with hunger and distance in spite of hostile Indians
and innumerable other dangers. John and Francis were
slain three years later in the Whitman Massacre. There
are those in Idaho who scoff at this story, declaring that
Paul Bunyan never equaled it in tremendous farce. There
are others who swear that it is literally true.
At 235 m. (L) is CLEFT, a few deserted shacks on
the railroad.
Left from Cleft are the CRATER RINGS (L) 3 m., regarded by
some Idahoans as the most phenomenal spot in their State, but the
roads running to them are nothing but cow trails, and until one of
them is improved travel will be hazardous. These rings are two
great volcanic cones that look like ancient amphitheaters from
which all benches have been removed. Also here is a remarkable
earthquake fissure: for five miles the surface was split open by
some tremendous tremor in the past, and the crack, from five
to ten feet in width, is in places of unknown depth. The rings them-
selves were doubtless caused by two gigantic eruptions of such
force and volume that a cubic mile of lava was hurled into the air
and blown into dust. Five hundred yards east of them in the
fissure is an ice cave, a chamber about thirty-five feet deep.
At MAYFIELD 247 m. is the junction with a road.
Left on this road is ORCHARD 6 m., a village of shacks in an arid
region named for what was once a huge orchard but is now only a
few stunted trees. South of Orchard are many caves, of which the
HIGBY, six miles out toward Flag Butte, is best known. The road
to it is difficult. But this whole area between Mountain Home and
Kuna is one of caves, and in it more than thirty have been found,
though a few, because of inconspicuous entrances, have been lost.
None of those known are comparable to the Crystal Falls or Minne-
tonka caves, but many of them are interesting. Exploration here
needs the service of old-timers.
U S 30 continues over semiarid region to Boise 268 m.
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Pop. 21,544
Elev. 2,739
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INDEX
1 State Capitol
2 Post Office
3 Courthouse
4 General Hospital
5 Carnegie Library
6 Hotels
7 Public School Field
8 Natatorium
9 0. 3. L. Freight Depot
10 0. S. L. Passenger Depot
11 Masonic Cemetery
12 Memorial Park
13 Municipal Tourist Park
14 Elm Park
15 Sunset Drive
16 Skyline Drive
17 Hill Road
18 Julia Davis Park
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TOURTHREE 253
Section c. Boise to Weiser, 72 m.
BOISE (2,741 alt.; 21,544 pop.).
Railroad station: Union Pacific, on the bench.
Bus station: Union Pacific Stages, 929 Main.
Airport, municipal: Off Broadway just south of Boise River.
Golf Courses: Boise Country Club, 3 m, southwest of city. Planta-
tion, 4 m. west on State 44. American Legion, at end of Eighth.
All are nine-hole courses.
Boise, the capital of Idaho and its largest city, stands
on the Boise River at the extreme upper end of the Boise
Valley. It is primarily a city of trees and homes and envi-
able climate. Protected by great mountains on the north
and lying in a belt of prevailing westerly winds, it and its
valley are never outraged by the cold blizzards that sweep
down from Canada and paralyze eastern Idaho and the
States beyond. Its summers, though often hot, are nearly
always dry, and its nights are usually cool. Its winters are
mild. The city is supported chiefly by a few plants and
factories within its site or adjacent and by a rich agri-
cultural area given chiefly to hay and grain, vegetables,
and fruits, of which the prune is famous. The valleys
lying west of it to Oregon are the chief dairying section
of the State. Like many other towns, it has an abun-
dance of natural hot water, having tapped wells that flow
1,200,000 gallons daily at a temperature of 170 degrees F.
Many of the homes, and especially in the eastern part,
are heated from these flows ; and the chief avenue. Warm
Springs, takes its name from them. The large NATA-
TORIUM and its playground are on this avenue at its
eastern end.
Of the city's buildings, a few are in some degree
noteworthy. The CAPITOL at Eighth and Jefferson is
monumentally classical in aspect, with Corinthian col-
umns supporting a Corinthian pediment. It is faced
with Boise sandstone. In the rotunda is a remarkable
equestrian statue of George Washington. This, the work
254 IDAHO
of Charles Ostner, a soldier of fortune sojourning in
Idaho, was carved by hand from a yellow pine tree at
Garden Valley with the crudest of tools and with only a
postage stamp to serve as a model. It was four years in
the making, and was then carefully scraped with glass,
sandpapered, gilded with paint, and later overlaid with
gold leaf. It was presented to Idaho Territory in 1869
and dedicated to Idaho pioneers. In the basement of the
Capitol is the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY (admission
free) , crowded into one room, with stuffed birds and beasts
thrust out into the hallways, and with piles of materials
shoved into drawers and vaults. Many valuable gifts and
collections are being withheld until a suitable building is
erected for housing them. On the Capitol grounds is the
STEUNENBERG MONUMENT, designed by Gilbert Ris-
wald, cast by Guido Nelli. Its legend declares that the
former governor was "Rugged in Body, Resolute in Mind,
Massive in the Strength of his Convictions." Frank Steun-
enberg. Governor of the State 1897-1901, was killed by a
bomb in December, 1905, during the mine labor troubles of
the period. The trial of those accused of causing his death
was a court duel between William E. Borah, acting for the
State, and Clarence Darrow of the defense.
Across from the Capitol is the HOTEL BOISE, a munic-
ipally owned structure of which Boiseans are reasonably
proud. At the southern end of Capitol Boulevard, and
facing the Capitol Building, is the beautiful UNION PA-
CIFIC STATION. Set upon a hill, it overlooks the city, as
well as the landscaped Howard Piatt Gardens with their
flowers and Norway maples, blossoming catalpas and
weeping willows. These gardens, lovely under search-
lights at night, were designed by Richardo Espino of Los
Angeles. ST. JOHN'S ROMAN CATHEDRAL at Eighth
and Hays was designed by Tourtellotte and Hummel of
Boise, the architects of the Capitol. It is Romanesque in
exterior and elaborately adorned with stained windows and
marble altars inside. ST. MICHAEL'S EPISCOPAL CA-
TOUR THREE 255
THEDRAL (architects unknown) is of English Gothic and
stands at Eighth and State.
Of buildings of historic interest the city has many.
In JULIA DAVIS PARK, lying upon the north bank of the
river just east of Eighth Street, is the COSTON CABIN.
Built in the spring of 1863 by I. N. Coston, it was fash-
ioned of driftwood gathered from the river and put to-
gether with pegs. Its original site was on the river seven
miles above Boise, and there it served as a rendezvous
for Indians, prospectors, freighters, and packers. In this
park, too, is the PEARCE CABIN, built in the fall of 1863
by Ira B. Pearce of logs brought from the mountains by
ox team. On the south side of the river near the Holcomb
school is the BLOCKHOUSE, a two-story structure built in
1869 of heavy stones that were brought to the site by
nobody knows what means. In early days this house
served as a refuge against Indian attacks, and now re-
poses in legend as a haunted place. The DeLAMAR HOUSE
on the southwest corner of Eighth and Grove was in its
heyday the largest and most modern home in the town.
It not only had the first mansard roof within the State
but is said to have been the first home in the United
States heated with natural hot water. In 1892, Captain
J. R. DeLamar, the silver king, bought it for $35,000
and converted it into an exclusive club ; in 1905 it became
the home of Boise's first beauty parlor; and is today a
Basque rooming house. The OTARRELL CABIN, at
Sixth and Fort, was built in 1863, and now has a tablet
above the door which declares that this was the first home
in Boise to shelter women and children. Within are the
original fireplace and a teakettle which were used by the
first occupants. At Fifteenth and Ridenbaugh is CHRIST'S
CHURCH, erected in 1866 at Seventh and Idaho, and the
first Protestant Episcopal church in Montana, Idaho, and
Utah. Across from the Statesman building on Main is
the HALLADAY STAGE STATION, whose history
reaches back to early times. At 210 Main is the old U. S,
256 IDAHO
ASSAY OFFICE, built in 1870-71, and said to have re-
ceived more than $75,000,000 in gold and silver bullion
through its doors. It is now used by the department of
forestry. Somewhere on Main between Eighth and Ninth
a saloon operated a half century ago. Managed by James
Lawrence and known as the Naked Truth Saloon, it adver-
tised itself in most astonishing fashion.
Friends and Neighbors:
Having just opened a commodious shop for the sale of liquid fire,
I embrace this opportunity of informing you that I have com-
menced the business of making:
Drunkards, paupers and beggars for the sober, industrious and
respectable portion of the community to support. I shall deal in
family spirits, which vi^ill incite men to deeds of riot, robbery, and
blood, and by so doing, diminish the comfort, augment the expenses
and endanger the welfare of the community.
I will undertake on short notice, for a small sum and with great
expectations, to prepare victims for the asylum, poor farm, prison
and gallows.
I will furnish an article which will increase fatal accidents,
multiply the number of distressing diseases and render those which
are harmless incurable. I will deal in drugs which will deprive
some of life, many of reason, most of prosperity, and all of peace:
which will cause fathers to become fiends, and wives widows, chil-
dren orphans and a nuisance to the nation.
Boise has several candy factories that specialize in
quality. The largest, at 412 South Eighth, welcomes visi-
tors who wish to see how the famous Owyhee chocolates
are made. Spanning the river on Capitol Boulevard is the
Memorial Bridge, designed by Charles Kyle, and com-
memorating the pioneers who forded the river at this
point. At 1301 Capitol Boulevard is a plant that specializes
in "Oregon Trail" furniture, made exclusively from Idaho
knotted pine. At First and Main is the URGUIDES LIT-
TLE VILLAGE. In 1863, Jesus "Kossuth" Urguides, a
frontiersman from San Francisco, established his freight-
ing station where thirty one-room cabins now stand.
These, built to house packers and wranglers, are today oc-
cupied by a little colony of old-timers who can still remem-
ber how the generous Urguides cared for them in sickness
>*;:
A Boise sky
A view in Boise
TOURTHREE 257
and health. Boise is said to have the second largest
Basque colony in the world. Its midsummer festival is a
genuine Romeria, similar to fiestas in Spain, with Basque
food, costumes, dances, and music. (See Sec. I, Ch. IX,
Emerging from the Frontier.)
Of recreation, Boise offers a small playground in
JULIA DAVIS PARK, with an art museum, picnic
grounds, boating, and tennis courts. Close by the airport,
and upon the southern rim, there are small cabarets and
clubs, modest in size but still invested with much of the
spirit of the old West. Boise is small as cities go, but its in-
terest in music and its patronage of visiting musicians are
enough to inspirit a metropolis twenty times its size. Its
music week, born here in 1919 and held annually in May,
has spread to so many parts of the country that it has be-
come almost a national institution. But Boise is more the
center of a playground than it is a playground in itself, and
it is the side trips from here that offer the most in
recreation.
1. Right from Boise up Warm Springs Avenue and then by road,
surfaced in part of its length, up the Boise River are the ARROW-
ROCK DAM and RESERVOIR 24 m. This dam is one of the State's
more noteworthy engineering achievements, and was, until more
spectacular construction followed, the highest dam in the United
States. Built by the Bureau of Reclamation and resting upon a
foundation of granite, it is 1,100 feet wide and 348.5 feet high above
bedrock, and contains 600,000 cubic yards of concrete. It creates a
reservoir 17 miles long, covering a maximum area of 2,890 acres and
impounding 280,000 acre-feet. Especially impressive is the view here
in late spring after a heavy winter when the reservoir is full and the
river is delivered to an overthrow in a fall twice the height of Niag-
ara. The road has just been completed up the river from here to AT-
LANTA 66 m., a small mining town at the base of the Sawtooth
Range.
2. Right from Boise past the barracks, a safe but rapidly climbing
road leads to TABLE ROCK 4 m., clearly visible from the city.
This huge flat table of stone, 1,100 feet above the valley, was for-
merly used as a lookout by Indians, and from it today can be
seen the route taken by pioneers and their ox teams on the trail
south of the river. On this plateau is to be found the quarry from
which sandstone of unusual quality is taken. This is not only the
stone used in the Capitol but is also the stone that was demanded
258 IDAHO
by Yale University, by the Spokane cathedral, and by builders in
San Francisco and Hollywood. The view from this table is excellent
but is not comparable with that afforded by other points.
3. Right from the city on the road in side tour 1 to a left turn at 19
m. and then up Moore Creek through the Boise National Forest are
IDAHO CITY 45 m. and the Boise Basin and its ghost towns (see
Sec. II, Ch. V, Ghost Towns). From Idaho City (which refuses to
be called a ghost, even though it is less than a handful of what
it used to be) is Lowman 82 m.; and from here roads lead east, nox-th,
and west into areas even more primitive. Above Lowman in a beau-
tiful spot in the forest 4 m. is the KIRKHAM HOT SPRINGS, where
free cabins are available. Right from Lowman on State 17 is the
GRANDJEAN HOT SPRINGS 30 m. on the headwaters of the South
Fork of Payette River. When this Grandjean road is completed it
will lead into STANLEY BASIN 45 m. and the area of the Sawtooth
lakes (see Tour 5, Sec. a). Westward from Lowman the road leads
through Garden Valley and to a junction with State 15 (see Tour 6,
Side tour from Banks).
4. Right from Boise up Eighth Street and past the water plant, a
road climbs for nine spectacular miles to PINE VIEW 9 m. upon
one of the lower summits of the Boise Mountains. A few cabins
are available here and refreshments in a most unprepossessing inn;
and just beyond (R) is a free park with campgrounds. This is one
of the most popular and one of the most breath-taking drives in
the State, especially in the descent; but the most magnificent and
haii'-raising side trip out of Boise is the next.
5. This trip can be reversed, with the beginning by way of Pine
View, but for an easier climb, for more impressive panoramas, and
for an appropriate climax, the journey should proceed west from
Boise over State 44 and 15 (see Tour 6) to the junction (R) 2.5 m.
north of HORSE SHOE BEND 31.5 m. The road from here around
the remainder of the loop is narrow and fairly smooth, and safe
only for experienced drivers. Unless the drive is made in cool
weather, three or four gallons of water should be carried. At
33.5 m. this tour takes the right turn past the schoolhouse and goes
up the canyon and climbs, sometimes steeply, for 13 m. to the sum-
mit 46.5 m., where the right turn is to be taken. The road now pro-
ceeds up the backbone for a short distance and then drops over
switchbacks to lower ridges before climbing again to the rim of the
world where it follows the sky line of the Boise Ridge to SHAFER
BUTTE 62 m. (elevation 7,591). After the Boise Ridge is gained, this
drive is breath-taking during the remainder of its length to Boise.
The road itself has so much mica in the sand that it looks under sun-
light as if strewn with diamonds; the rock formations on either side
are very picturesque; and the panorama rolls away a hundred miles
in any direction. The most magnificent view, of its kind second to
none in the State, is to be had from the Shafer Butte Lookout: in
the northwest is a tumultuous kingdom of denuded mountains that
TOURTHREE 259
drop away to valleys and then lift to the Wallowa Range in Oregon;
in the south is the Boise Valley reaching to Snake River and walled
by the Owyhee Mountains; in the southeast is blue haze shimmer-
ing far and faintly clear to the Utah Line; in the east is the blue
and golden empire of range upon range extending to the pale re-
mote grandeur of the Sawtooths; and in the north are the Packer
John Lookout (see Tour 6) and the lookouts beyond. From Shafer
Futte the road winds upon the sky line and rims the world to Pine
View 71 m. and then drops mile upon mile down the mountains
to Boise 80 m.
6. Right from Boise over State 44 to the junction at 15 m. with State
16, a surfaced road leads (R) to FREEZEOUT HILL 28 m., an
excellent vantage point for a view of Payette Valley, and thence
to EMMETT 31 m. in the heart of a fruit area. This trip is especially
worth while in April when the loveliness and fragrance of the great
cherry oi'chards are unforgettable. Emmett has an annual cherry
festival later when the fruit is ripening, with a cherry queen pageant,
a rose show, and a carnival of floats and dances and parades. But
the heart of the festival is the display of the giant black luscious
Bings, the pride of this town. Right from Emmett on dirt road is the
BLACK CANYON DAM 4 m., a concrete structure 184 feet high.
At 8 m. is the ROYSTON HOT SPRINGS with an outdoor pool.
U S 30 follows Main Street westward out of Boise.
MERIDIAN 10 m. (2,650 alt.; 1,004 pop.) is the small
capital of a very fertile area, and is the largest shipping
point of its size in the State, and the home of one of
Idaho's largest creameries.
Left from Meridian on a surfaced road is Kuna 8 m., and a
poor road goes south from here to the KUNA CAVE 6 m. This
latter road, at present unmarked by signs, swings southward past
the railway station; but two miles out there is a junction (R) with
a less traveled road that winds over sagebrush and lava terrain to
the cave which marks the end of this branch. The cave itself is by
no means so remarkable as several others in the State but is more
frequently visited because better known and easily accessible to a
large area. The most unusual thing about it is the descent: the
opening is a ragged hole in the surface of the earth and into this a
ladder is thrust for thirty feet to the bottom. The chambers, floored
with sand and distressingly dirty because of interior winds, are
excellent vaults without any striking formations. Many visitors are
impressed by the currents of air that move through them, some-
times, as in small openings, with perceptible velocity. It is said
that wind blows into this cave tw^elve hours and out of it twelve
hours in every day. The second interior can by reached by lying
prone in the dust and squeezing for ten feet under the low roof; and
260 IDAHO
the entrance to the third is also rather arduous. Persons entering
these chambers should wear rough clothing and expect to return to
the surface with dust in their ears.
NAMPA 20 m. (2,482 alt.; 8,206 pop.), seventh city in
size in the State, is said to have been founded by a wealthy
old-timer who, falling into a fury with Boise one day,
strode out of it swearing that he would make grass grow
in its streets. Neither his rage nor his wealth was able to
fulfill his threat, but he did help to bring into existence a
town that has been thriving ever since. Nampa takes its
name from a leader of the western Shoshonis who was one
of the most enormous thieves and murderers that ever
broke the back of a pony. Nampuh was so huge that the
vest of John McLoughlin, himself a giant of 315 pounds,
failed by fifteen inches to reach around him. This city is
the center of an agricultural and dairying area. Well
known throughout this valley is its LAKEVIEW PARK,
seventy beautiful acres at the eastern border of the city,
with golf courses, playgrounds, and a large swimming pool
supplied from hot artesian water. On the north side is a
Spanish colony; just northwest of the city is a Bohemian
settlement; and the Scandinavian colony, largest of all,
indulges each summer in a huge picnic to which the fair-
haired come not only from these valleys but from neigh-
boring States.
1. Left from Nampa State 45 leads into Owyhee County, a pic-
turesque and relatively unexplored area that has a population of
fewer than 4,000 but an acreage larger than Connecticut and two
Rhode Islands put together. Old-timers down here declare that
anything can be found in this county, including, they suspect, the
lost tribes of Israel. Just before reaching the bridge across Snake
River, a right turn goes down the north bank to the largest single
INDIAN PICTOGRAPH 6 m. that has ever been found. Here, upon
a great stone close by and to the right of the road, is carved a great
map which roughly defines not only the Snake River Valley but
also Jackson Lake in western Wyoming and a few areas adjacent to
both. Vandals in recent years have broken off chunks of the rock
and carried away parts of the map.
The bridge on the river is at the site of the old WALTERS
FERRY which for fifty-eight years was an important link in the
Boise-San Francisco stage route. Today of the town only a few
Jump Creek Canyon
A profile in Sucker Creek
TOURTHREE 261
adobe huts remain, and of the ferry nothing. When building the
bridge, workmen found arrowheads, rifle balls, and one poke of gold
dust that had been hidden. South of the bridge are MURPHY 12 m.,
the present county seat, and SILVER CITY 44 m., patriarch of the
ghosts (see Sec. II, Chap. V, Ghost Towns).
2. Left from Nampa on an unimproved road is LAKE LOWELL 6 m.,
upon which in August an annual motorboat regatta is held. This
body of water, known also as the Deer Flat Reservoir, has a shore
line of twenty-eight miles, and is fairly alive with perch, bass, and
carp. There is no closed season on carp, and hundreds of sportsmen
go to this lake to spear these fish, sometimes taking as many as
three on a single lance. During spring spawning season, a fisher-
man may catch as many as fifty in an hour, the largest of which
are about thirty inches in length. There are also boating and bath-
ing here but other accommodations are poor.
At 23 m. on U S 30 is the junction with an improved
road.
Left on this road is JUMP CREEK CANYON 26 m., one of the
most beautiful spots in the State. At 14 m. the highway drops down
into a small lovely valley upon Snake River. On the left is LIZARD
BUTTE, a historic landmark. The best view of it is to be had from
the river bridge, where is to be seen its remarkable resemblance to
an enormous stone reptile, lying prone upon the hill and clutching
it with legs and tail while rearing its head. MARSING 16 m. is a
wayside stop beyond the bridge. From here it is ten miles over poor
road to the canyon, and only adventurous or very patient travelers
should undertake the journey.
Jump Creek Canyon offers endless wonders to exploration. The
road terminates at the mouth of it from which a trail leads up the
stream. Along this trail are huge chambers under overhanging
bluffs (in the first of which many campers eat their lunch); dark
caverns running back into the ledges; vaulted archways where great
piles of stone overshadow the creek and the trail; and high crags
against the sky. A more inviting path it would be hard to find in
Idaho. Less than half a mile from the beginning of the trail a
climb should be taken to the left for the best view of the waterfall
and the gorgeous backdrop beyond. The creek, if seen in spring or
early summer, plunges like streams of snow down a black wall of
lava for seventy-five feet. Beyond it the side of the gorge, stripped
clean save for tiny gardens of moss, rises in enormous colored
towers which range from blue gray and cobalt blue, from slabbed
walls of burnt orange, through the old rose of facades and the
somber red of columnar masses to patches of lemon yellow and
delicate springtime green. If seen in early morning when the sun
first strikes, this gorge is an indescribable riot of color. If, after
sunrise no longer floods it with brilliance, it is brought close with
powerful glasses, it is seen to be, and especially in the last terraced
262 IDAHO
bluflFs, a very rich mosaic, as if these walls had been inlaid with
rough stone slabs of every color known. On some afternoons, when
the ceiling is low, white clouds like floating islands asleep come
drifting over the crags against the sky and spill gently into the
gorge.
CALDWELL 29 m. (2,367 alt.; 4,974 pop.) has in the
COLLEGE OF IDAHO, visible at the eastern edge of the
city, the oldest institution of higher learning in the State.
Across the highway from it is one of the largest feeding
and shipping livestock stations in the Northwest. In ME-
MORIAL PARK, beyond the campus (L) are playgrounds,
a large outdoor pool fed by artesian water, and a cabin of
historic interest. In the JOHNSON CABIN, three bachelor
brothers lived in early days. At the west end of Main
Street is the plant of I'he Caxton Printers, the regional
pubhshers who in recent years have achieved a national
reputation. Visitors are welcomed. But none of these
items give the mental and spiritual flavor of this town
which with its nineteen different churches and its some-
what monastic quietness is quite unlike any other in the
State. On U S 30 at the northern edge of town is Canyon
Ford Bridge upon Boise River, and just north of the bridge
is the Dorion Monument, erected to Marie Dorion and as a
marker upon the original Oregon Trail. The site of old
Fort Boise is down the river one mile from its mouth.
Left from Caldwell on State 19 is Wilder 11 m. and Homedale 15 m.
and Trom there over fair road is Sucker Creek 33 m. in Oregon just
across the State Line. SUCKER CREEK CANYON, accessible only
or at least most easily by way of Idaho, is one of the beauty spots of
the Northwest. This canyon, running for more than two miles in its
more spectacular formations, is a stupendous area of monuments
and monoliths, mounds and cones, faces and silhouettes, pedestals
and spires, all gorgeously colored, with the dyes ranging from the
yellow sulphurous walls, eroded and spilled, through great red and
green bases to rich masses in which all colors are extravagantly
harmonized. There is no more overwhelming view here than the one
on the right at 37 m. where a hundred towers of varying heights and
colors stand sharp and clean against the sky.
U S 30 goes north out of Caldwell through the Payette
Valley, the only part of the State that has more available
TOUR THREE 263
water for irrigation than is needed. NEW PLYMOUTH
54 m. was conceived in the Sherman House in Chicago by
a chairman of a national irrigation congress ; and FRUIT-
LAND 61 m. is the center of one of the most prolific fruit
areas in the State.
PAYETTE 67 m. (2,147 alt. ; 2,618 pop.) has a well-
known shade-tree nursery which has developed a pink-
flowering and purple-bloom locust tree that blooms every
month. An apple blossom festival is an annual event here
when the orchards are burgeoned. Just west of the town
are the SHOWBERGER BOTANICAL GARDENS, an in-
ventory of which in 1934 showed 132 native plants that had
been identified, 100 that were still unnamed, and 1,500 wild
and cultivated varieties. These gardens suppHed Hyde
Park in London with wild hollyhock after a long search
in Weiser Canyon to find it. Fifty different species of
pentstemon are grown here.
WEISER 82 m. (2,119 alt. ; 2,724 pop.) stands at the
confluence of the Snake and Weiser Rivers close by Ore-
gon. It was named for Jacob Weiser, a German trapper,
and is pronounced Wee'-zer. The old town was for a time
called Weiser Bridge, and by 1890 had several stores and
hotels and barns and six saloons ; but in this year a man
tried to take all of these saloons in a day's stride and
knocked a lamp over in a hotel, and the subsequent fire
almost wiped out the town. A new Weiser one mile west-
ward was founded, and what remained of the first r.ettle-
ment moved over there. The town is today the gateway
of the fertile Weiser Valley with its huge orchards and
great belts of wheat fields. Of unexploited resources, this
region has an inexhaustible quantity of diatomaceous
earth, valuable in the manufacture of insulation.
There are several historic points of interest in or near
the town. At the eastern end of Twelfth Street is the old
immigrant crossing where wagon trains on the Oregon
Trail forded the river in early days. The old ferry boat
still stands on the Snake River crossing. Of historic
264 IDAHO
houses, the GALLOWAY and the HOPPER LOG CABIN
are noteworthy, the first six miles up Weiser River, the
second on the site of the old town.
At Weiser is the junction with U S 95 (see Tour 7).
U S 30 crosses the Oregon Line at 72 m., 65 m. from Baker,
Oregon ( see Oregon Tour 1).
TOUR NO. 4
Blackfoot — Arco — Junction with U S 93, 2 m. south of
Challis. 144 m. State 27. Lost River Highway.
The Oregon Short Line Railroad parallels this route be-
tween Blackfoot and Mackay. Salmon River Stages use
the highway between Blackfoot and Challis.
Accommodations throughout are less than average in
hotels and tourist camps, and travelers who plan to spend
some time in the region are wise to equip and provision
themselves for an outdoor life.
State 27 proceeds out of Blackfoot (R) into the north-
west, and soon leaves the fertile Snake River Valley to
enter that enormous desolation of volcanic outpourings
of which the Craters of the Moon are only a very small
part. The contrast can be felt more deeply if it is remem-
bered that State 39, which branches (L) at 5 m., turns
south to SPRINGFIELD 20 m., in the vicinity of which is
produced almost half of the Grimm alfalfa seed grown in
the United States. State 27 soon reaches beyond all the
irrigated luxuriance of this valley and lays its journey
across apparently endless miles of the eastern slope of
the great Idaho batholith. This Jurassic uplift underlies
part of the State and is, with its innumerable folds and
faults, its granitic gorges and basaltic buttes and cones,
the most notable geologic feature of Idaho.
Right at 40 m. are the TWIN BUTTES and on the left
BIG BUTTE, famous landmarks for emigrants in early
days. Two of them, BIG and EAST BUTTES, are rhyolitic
volcanic cones completely surrounded by Snake River lava
and are admirable examples of steptoes (islands formed in
a once-molten sea of lava) . MIDDLE BUTTE is an up-
raised block of stratified basalt. Middle Butte rises above
the plain 400 feet. East Butte, 700 ; but Big Butte rises
2,350 feet as a deeply sculptured mountain and terminates
in two ridges about a mile apart, with a deep depression be-
266 IDAHO
tween that apparently is the remnant of a crater. This
mountain can be scaled but has unusual abruptness of
ascent on all sides. It is composed chiefly of nearly white
rhyolitic lava which varies in texture from firm-banded
layers to light pumice and black obsidian. The basalt
spilled at its base and spread into sheets is black. This
formidable monument is a favorite haunt of certain wild
animals, including bear and deer; and on its northern
slope is a young and thrifty growth of fir and juniper.
From the summit of Big Butte a broad vista presents the
geologic record of the Snake River plains. Middle and
East Buttes also rise abruptly. At the summit of the lat-
ter is the remnant of a volcanic crater. In the vicinity of
both are many caves and underground passages, most of
which have doubtless never been explored; and for any
person seeking the unusual or wishing to venture into
what has not within the memory of living man been seen,
these three desolate sentinels are a terrifying playground.
At 54 m. is the junction with State 29.
Right on state 29 are the LOST RIVER SINKS 20 m., where
two rivers have long disappeared. As a matter of fact, not a single
tributary reaches Snake River by surface travel from the high
and rugged mountains lying west and north of its course between
Malad River (see Tour 3, Sec. b) and Henrys (North) Fork, a distance
of two hundred miles. In certain instances, as in the case of Big and
Little Lost Rivers, the waters spread out in the marginal portion of
the plain during the period of their greatest elongation and form
shallow lakes. The chief reason these rivers are lost is the fact that
the terrain across which they flow is rough and irregular, and evapo-
ration and percolation in the lakes equal the influx. Big Lost River
rises in the Sawtooth Range and flows ninety miles into this desert of
stone to form a lake and vanish; and the Little Lost River emerges
from the Pahsimeroi Mountains and flows eighty miles to disappear
ten miles east of the other sinkholes. Both of these rivers were over-
land tributaries of the Snake before volcanic upheavals buried their
channels and shook them out of their courses. Their outlet, as well
as the outlet of other streams that vanish in this area, is thought
to be chiefly the Thousand Springs which gush from the walls of
Snake River Canyon a hundred and fifty miles in the southwest
(see Tour 3, Sec. b).
ARCO 62 m. (5,318 alt. ; 572 pop.) is the seat of Butte
County and one of the loveliest of small Idaho towns.
Monoliihs at sunset and Volcanic Crater — Craters of the Moon
^j bupj^, .aj"*C .<,^—
•iSSSh.-
'»«u«Ls*M:ii^
Cave mouth and formafion of cave interior — Craters of the Moon
Indian Tunnel: entrance and corridor — Craters of the Moon
Lava flow — Craters of the Moon
Impression of charred log in lava — Craters of the Moon
TOURFOUR 267
From some distance it strongly resembles a village in
Switzerland. The present site is its third since 1879, the
first of which was called Junction; but the U. S. Post
Office Department did not look with favor on so many
Junctions, and the name was changed, though whether
the present town was named for a visiting Count Arco
or for Arco Smith, an early settler, or whether it was
named because the town is on a bend in the river, seems
not to be known. The Lost River Range terminates in the
picturesque Wildcat Peak which is the backdrop of this
town. The caretaker of the Craters of the Moon National
Monument is stationed here and will provide guides if
desired.
1. Left from Arco on State 22 is the CRATERS OF THE MOON
NATIONAL MONUMENT 20.5 m. Martin's Ranch 18.5 m. (R)
is a post office only. At the Hailey entrance accommodations are
available. The panorama in this area at sunset is overwhelming,
for at this hour the fields of lava are utterly black and strangely
unreal; and in sharp contrast to them is the high and ghostly
beauty of the Lost River Mountains in the east. Persons intending
to leave the roads in the Craters region to explore should wear
rugged clothing and very rugged shoes.
The Craters Monument, to which the buttes and the sinks with
their surrounding country are an appropriate preface, is said to
be unique upon the North American Continent. It was not ex-
plored save casually until recently, and was not set aside as a
national monument until 1924. In Blaine and Butte Counties of
Idaho, and resting upon the central lava terrain, the Monument
itself is a newer part of a vast lava field that covers some two
hundred thousand square miles and extends westward to the great
Columbia Plateau. It is named Craters of the Moon because its
caves and natural bridges, cones and terraces and weird piles of
stone resemble the surface of the moon as seen through a telescope.
Three periods of eruption, the last of which probably took place
250 to 1,000 years ago, are recorded in the cones: the earliest in the
cones of the Devil's Orchard and in the field of crags south of Big
Cinder Cone; the next in the Sunset, Silent, Big Cinder, and their
neighbors on the Great Rift; and the third by the North Crater and
Big Craters, which formed the line of spatter cones southeast of
Big Craters. The cones formed by the latter explosions are the most
striking of the landscape.
The monumental area itself covers eighty square miles and is
one of the largest national monuments under the National Park
Service. Few spots on earth have such power to impress the human
mind with the awful inner nature of the huge rock-planet upon which
the human race moves at incredible speed through the universe. An-
268 IDAHO
ciently, and periodically thereafter, these eighty square miles and
hundreds of square miles around them poured forth from thousands
of steaming vents lava boiling at two thousand degrees F.; shud-
dered and heaved and cracked wide open in the granite depths;
rolled over the miles in a great flood of molten rock, building
grotesque caricatures; and then sucked downward through impene-
trable black caves and were still. Today this area looks as if great
seething cauldrons had poured from the sky upon this desolation,
with the masses often cooling suddenly in the moving deluge, or
stopping short as if flowing black or gray water had turned to stone.
A person can spend days here and never see all that is to be seen or
imagine the infinite variety of sculpturing and relief. Looking into a
gigantic crack known as the Great Rift, and remembering not only
that rivers disappear in the broad area eastward and flow in sub-
terranean darkness, but also the strangeness of the whole region,
the visitor can let his fancy build mightily and then fail to grasp
the immensity of what once happened. Formerly several rivers
came down off the watersheds and across this plateau to fall into
the Snake where it was eroding its gorge far to the south. And
then one day, a long time ago, the incalculable billions of tons of
lava, running to what depth nobody knows, shook upward in boiling
floods and poured over the plain for miles east and south and west.
It came in such force and such volume that blocks of unmelted rock
broke from the ceiling of the buried reservoirs and floated upward
and were carried like driftwood on the mad tides. The torrents came
out boiling, or gushed up in broad liquid floods that broke and fell in
pouring terraces and swept out in great black tides that now lie like
huge billowed carpets stretched to only half their length; or moved,
half-congealed, in heavy slow motion out over the steaming land-
scape. Then for awhile there was peace; but other stupendous erup-
tions followed through the centuries, and the surface was torn apart
in hundreds of vents and fissures, and outpourings built mile by mile
the overwhelming picturesqueness of the region.
Strangely, there is but one type of lava, though this masquerades
in several guises and assumes a variety of aspects. The dominant
formation is basalt, rich in iron, which is the rimrock of the
Snake River Gorge. In bright sunlight, some of the formations
here look like blue glass; some like the half-deflated bodies of
monstrous reptiles; arid some like the transfixed waves of an ocean
that had been caught running to high tide. There are many black
buttes here, some with their tops blown off as if dynamite had
scattered them to the winds; and some, rising several hundred feet
above these, look as if they had been thrust up from the earth,
inflated and ready to explode, but had cooled before explosion came.
There are piles of solidified froth and foam that were blown out
by fountains of fire; mounds of rock-clot that were soldered to one
another under heat and collision after being thrown upward; and
ribbons and spindle-bombs of stone that were shaped into beautiful
symmetrical spheres during their moments of flight. There are
dark musty caverns, dank and terrifying tunnels, and pits that are
said to be bottomless. There are caves holding water that never
Natural bridge near Arco
TOURFOUR 269
rises more than two degrees above freezing even on the hottest
days. And there are curious tree molds, because these eruptions
buried a forest, and the lava in places flowed twenty feet in depth
around trees, embracing the trunks within the boiling stone.
Perhaps the best view of this unutterably desolate region is to
be had from Big Cinder Butte, which rises eight hundred feet
above the adjacent plains. It is one of the largest basaltic cinder
cones in the world. Lying eastward from it are broken pavements
of black lava that unroll mile upon mile into the gray haze of the
desert. Visible from this height is a strange yellow island of
knolls, overgrown with grass, which were not inundated by floods.
Southeast runs a series of volcanic vents reaching out into the
black loneliness of lava for eleven miles and coming to a climax
in Black Top Butte. Southward is an awful acreage of crags and
domes; and over in the northwest lie the crater pits along the
Great Rift. Some of these cones are brilliant red at noon and
purple under twilight, and all of them together, when seen from
Big Cinder Butte at dusk, are as weird a map of colors shimmering
over a pattern of desolate waste as it is possible to see anywhere.
Indians, indeed, held this spot in awe, and have handed down
legends of that terrible time when the hills smoked and shouldered
upward in their stupendous wrath and the whole broad reach of the
desert trembled.
And this region, curiously enough, has wild animals living within
it, as well as a few trees and many wild flowers. There are western
junipers and limber pines and quaking aspens here; and among
flowers there are red or yellow Eriogonums, blue pentstemons and
larkspurs, pui-ple lupine and red Indian paintbrushes, pink and
white primroses; and loveliest of all, the most incongruous in the
black wastes, are the white blossoms of the bitterroot, the yellow
blossoms of the sand lily, and the gorgeous white sego lily, Utah's
State flower. As if these were not enough, there are also cinque-
foil and daisy and phlox, yarrow and aster and prairie pink. And
a surprising number of animals make their homes here. There
are several species of rabbit; gophers and chipmunks and porcu-
pines; pack rats and rockchucks and skunks; and even coyotes and
bobcats. In Moss Cave and Sunbear Cave there used to be dens of
bears, and several grizzlies were slain in this area some years ago.
Skulls show that mountain sheep and antelope and deer used to
roam here. But there are no snakes in this region because the
terrain is too rough and jagged for their journeying. Of birds
there are woodpeckers and hawks and ravens and crows, larks and
bluebirds and shrikes, sage grouse and mourning doves, and both
the bald and golden eagle.
State 22 continues from the Hailey entrance into the southwest to
its junction with State 23, which in turn proceeds to its junction at
Shoshone with U S 93. Twenty-seven miles from Arco there is no
longer a volcanic area on the right. On the contrary there is for
many miles now the strangest contrast to be found on any Idaho
highway. Upon the left is the ragged flank of the Craters area
with long ridges running across like rifts of coal; and on the
270 IDAHO
right are denuded mountains so soft in color and texture that they
look in subdued light (in May or June) as if they were draped with
silk. At 30 m. there is a broad view of the western reach of the
volcanic region, with the blue of Snake River Valley against purple
mountains in the southwest. Less than a mile after entering Blaine
County, the hills on the right are strikingly lovely in shades of
orchid and lilac, supplemented now and then by golden or blue
flanks and ravines. At 38 m. the water on the left is a haven of
ducks, with lava piled like coal on the far side. A right turn 45 m.
leads to Fish Creek and to excellent campsites in a canyon. Between
here and Shoshone there are intermittent patches of irrigated green
but for the most part the area still stands within possession of
volcanic landscaping.
CAREY 55 m. and RICHFIELD 78 m. are two small hamlets, each
the center of an irrigated oasis upon a pitted and rifted plateau
of waste. At SHOSHONE 96 m. surfaced highways go north, south,
and west (see Tour 5).
2. Right from Arco a short distance on an unimproved road leading
toward Arco Pass a little-used wood road leads to the left toward
Beaverland Pass, and from the end of the road it is about a mile by
trail to the second most remarkable natural bridge in the State.
This arch completely bridges the canyon with a span of about 125
feet and a height of about 50 feet. Of irregular diameter, it spreads
into flanges at either end and is so rough on its surface that it is
difficult to cross it and not a little dangerous.
For the lover of beautiful mountains, the drive from
Arco to Challis is not comparable in massed splendor to
the distance between Challis and Salmon City (see Tour
5) or to the glittering imperturbability of the Sawtooth
Peaks west of Stanley Basin. But it is, nevertheless, a
minor feast, no matter whether in great rugged torsos or
in the low mounded extravagance of brown hills or in the
plump austerity of Mount Borah. From Arco, State 27
goes up the valley of Lost River, and attention is called
at 82 m. to the contrast between the range on the left and
the one on the right. It is difficult to believe that almost
denuded mountains could be any lovelier than this Lost
River spur on the right, though the range across from it
is softer in contour and richer in color.
At 89 m. is the junction with an unimproved road.
Right on this road is PASS CREEK GORGE 9 m. on Pass Creek.
This canyon, too, it seems, is often called the Royal Gorge of Idaho,
and pei'haps is worthier of the name than any other. This gorge, more
TOURFOUR 271
than a mile in length, is very narrow, and its sheer walls, rising more
than two thousand feet, leave only a slender path of sky line above.
Favored as a picnic ground, the bottom of the canyon is forested and
is traversed throughout by a cold mountain stream. Fishing in this
stream and in others here is excellent. The walls of the gorge are
two thousand feet of strata, the lower depth of which is dark blue
limestone which grades upward into shale. Like any other magnifi-
cent canyon, this one comes most 'fully to life at sunset when the
upper ledges are luminous with glory and the shadows are banked
depth upon depth in the lower reaches.
MACKAY 90 m. (5,897 alt.; 777 pop.) is another sub-
alpine town in a lovely setting. It stands in a valley that
once sheltered several boom towns, of which little or
nothing remains, as well as gangs of lusty rascals who
had things pretty much to their taste before the vigi-
lantes came. Of minor indignities, the murder of Bill
Noyes is still remembered. He was traveling with a
friend whose name seems to have vanished beyond legend
when the two men engaged in argument over a trivial
matter and descended from the wagon to fight. Noyes
was the huskier of the two, and after beating his friend
in what a historian calls a "most barbarous manner" he
waxed sardonically playful and drove the wagon over the
prostrate body. But the now nameless one was tougher
than he seemed. He came to his senses presently and sat
up and shook both his fists and made horrible threats, all
of which he later fulfilled by calling Noyes from his sleep
one night and filling him with buckshot. Stories such as
this still live within the memory of old-timers here and
make a good part of the history of this valley.
At 92 m. is the Cottonwood Grove dancing pavilion
(R) ; and on the left at 95 m. is a lake, either blue or green,
depending on the light, which is the storage and diversion
point of the river. South of here the old bed of Lost River
is dry. CHILLY 107 m. is a ghost town of a few deserted
shacks.
Left from Chilly on the Trail Creek Road is TRAIL CREEK SUM-
MIT and a fine improved campground 25 m. The distance to Ketchum
is 43 m. (See Tour 5.) This road proceeds through a closed game
preserve on the Lemhi National Forest, and deer are often visible
to those driving across.
272 IDAHO
DICKEY 111 m. still appears on highway maps but
there is nothing here except a ranch on either side of the
road. This is another ghost town. Mount Borah, straight
east of it, is the highest known point in Idaho: though
it stands at an elevation of 12,655 feet, it seems not to,
perhaps because the tableland surrounding it is con-
siderably more than a mile above the sea.
Right from Dickey a country road leads to the foot of the mountain,
to the summit of which a few persons annually climb for the view
afforded not only of much of Idaho but of parts of Utah, Wyoming,
and Montana as well. Old-timers here say that only one woman has
ever reached the top and they are dubious of her, surmising that her
husband recorded her name there.
Much more impressive than Mount Borah itself in
May and June is the incomparable mountain north of it
with its colorful warm flanks and its deep and symmetri-
cal ravines. This is Dickey Peak. Its lower slopes in
spring and summertime look like a plush gray or green
carpet, and its marvellously sculptured reaches look like
golden velvet. Quite as beautiful is the range which runs
north from it, visible as soon as the ascent is made out
of Thousand Springs Valley.
At 123 m. is a junction with a fair road.
Left on this road by way of SPAR CANYON is CLAYTON 24 m.
on U S 93.
At about 130 m. State 27 passes through the spectacu-
lar heaped ruggedness of GRAND VIEW CANYON, where
the sheer walls are laid block upon block.
At 142 m. is the junction with U S 93, and two miles
north is Challis (see Tour 5, Sec. a).
TOUR NO. 5
(Missoula, Montana) — Salmon City — Ketchum — Sho-
shone— Twin Falls— (Wells, Nevada). U S 93. Sawtooth
Route.
Montana Line to Nevada Line, 365 m.
The Oregon Short Line of the Union Pacific System paral-
lels U S 93 between Ketchum and Shoshone, and the Twin
Falls Stages follow the highway between Stanley and the
Nevada Line.
This highway when completed will be one of the great
transcontinental arteries between Canada and Mexico.
This, from the Montana Line to either Arco or Hailey, is
the most magnificent long scenic drive in Idaho. It is two
hundred and forty miles of beautiful mountains, ranging
from soft flanks voluptuously mounded to the lean and
glittering majesty of toothed backbones. The lover of
natural beauty who wishes to see most of what this tour
offers will digress at North Fork over the side tour ; and
upon reaching Ketchum will take the road northeast over
the Pass Creek road and then proceed to Shoshone by way
of the Craters of the Moon. The additional distance will be
less than a hundred miles.
Accommodations limited.
Section a. Montana Line to Hailey, 241 m.
U S 93 comes up the Bitterroot Valley in Montana
and across the Bitterroot National Forest to enter Idaho
over historic LOST TRAIL PASS (6,995 alt.) which was
crossed by Lewis and Clark in 1805.
Left at the summit is a road that follows the Continental Divide
to the ANDERSON MOUNTAIN LOOKOUT 7 m., from which is
visible a large part of both Idaho and Montana.
274 IDAHO
South of the Montana-Idaho Line in Idaho is the Sal-
mon National Forest with its densely wooded reaches.
The road drops down into Idaho several thousand feet in
the next twenty-five miles. This part of U S 93 between
the Montana Line and North Fork is a winding drive
through a wilderness of evergreens much like that to
be found in many areas in Yellowstone Park. At 5 m.
after going down over a series of elbows the road eases
at the first bridge over the North Fork of Salmon River.
It was up the canyon on the right that Lewis and Clark
went by mistake on September 3, 1805. The timber on
the right or left during the first descent is chiefly lodge-
pole pine and Douglas fir with a little western yellow pine.
The SALMON NATIONAL FOREST of 1,723,872 acres
is upon the western slope of the Continental Divide and is
the chief watershed of the Salmon River and its forks, the
Lemhi River, and of such large creeks as Panther and
Horse, besides hundreds of smaller streams. Its principal
trees are western yellow pine at lower altitudes, with
lodgepole and Douglas fir higher up, and with limber pine
and balsam still higher as valuable coverage on the water-
sheds. Engelmann spruce is abundant in the canyons and
wetter areas. Its wild game is chiefly deer, mountain
sheep, and goat, antelope, bear, cougar, coyote, and lynx.
There are a few elk and moose and a few mule deer. This
region is a favorite with hunters from many parts of the
world, not only for larger game but also for grouse, quail,
pheasant, and, most notably, sage hens which are to be
found in huge flocks. Natural campsites, unexcelled fish-
ing streams, and roads and trails, often of poor texture,
are all too numerous to be mentioned save in exceptional
instances.
TWIN CREEK CAMPGROUND 9 m. (R) is improved
and one of the best in the forest. At 9.5 m., across the
stream (R), is a marker to Lewis and Clark, for it was
up this canyon they went on their historic journey.
GIBBONSVILLE 15 m. offers meals and a few cabins.
TOUR FIVE 275
This is a ghost town, and little remains of the thriving
village that was once here.
Left from here an unimproved road leads to Montana and to good
fishing and natural campsites on Dahlonega Creek in Idaho a few
miles out. A distance of eight miles on this road leads to what some
declare to be the finest vantage point in Idaho. From here on a bright
day it is possible to gaze clear across the State to the haze of the
Seven Devils Gorge upon the Idaho-Oregon Line.
U S 93 continues to parallel the North Fork, with the
valley widening enough to allow small meadowed ranches
and with the lodgepole yielding at this elevation to aspen,
birch, and willow along the stream, and to yellow pine and
spruce on the flanks.
NORTH FORK 26 m. is only a store and a junction.
Here is a fine monument to the Lewis and Clark Expedi-
tion and to Old Toby, the Indian who led them from here
to the Bitterroot Valley.
Right from North Fork a road goes down the Salmon River and
thence into primitive wilderness with return to U S 93 by way of
Panther, Napias, and Williams Creeks to the junction five miles south
of Salmon City. The road is narrow but fair to good.
Often called the River of No Return and a physical phenomenon in
itself because it is navigable only downstream, and then never under
any but expert guidance, the Salmon is the longest stream lying
wholly within any of the States. In either its main channel or its
middle fork, it journeys through a gorge that is deeper by a thousand
feet than the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. It rises In its chief
stream far in the southwest among the Sawtooth Mountains and flows
eastward for forty miles before it swings northward for nearly a
hundred, only to turn abruptly again, pick up the North Fork, and
plunge westward for two hundred miles, dividing the State into its
north and south halves and joining the Little Salmon at Riggins (see
Tour 7, Sec. a). The Middle Fork, rising near the source of the main
stream, goes northwestward and then north through a magnificent
canyon of its own and through the heart of the Primitive Area. The
road down the main river now goes almost to the junction with the
Middle Fork (about 50 m.), and will eventually be completed all the
way down the gorge to make one of the most picturesque drives
in America. J. B. Umpleby of the United States Geological Survey
has declared that the canyon of the main Salmon is "one of the
most magnificent gorges that nature ever produced." Boat trips
down the river's length from Salmon City are arranged there; and
for those with no taste or no money or time for so hazardous a
journey, the highway can be followed.
276 IDAHO
A sign at the junction declares that the ti-aveler takes this road at
his own risk, but this warning need not alarm for it seems not im-
probable that he takes all roads at his own risk. On the left at 4.5 m.
comes Dump Creek in wild haste down from the crags. Attention is
called to the few rugged old-timers along the river, usually on the
far side, and to the cables across which they coon when venturing
out for supplies. Geologists with the recent National Geographic
Expedition down the river have said that these pioneers are the
most independent persons on earth. That is a slight exaggeration.
The winters are relatively mild along this river, and these settlers
are in touch through the year with the world beyond. If the
traveler wishes to see persons living at the last reach of independ-
ence and remoteness, he can find them by pack trip into the hinter-
lands of this great forest.
A tiny MUSEUM 17 m. is left. It has a few heads of wild
animals and a few Indian relics. Of greater interest is the enormous
pile of antlers by the cabin south of it. Just beyond on the right
is Indian Ci-eek and a diversion road, built by the Forest Service,
which climbs to the Bluenose, Beai'trap, Oi-eana, and Long Tom
Lookouts from any of which is offered a vast and breathless view
of country. SHOUP 19 m. is a few unsightly shacks by the road.
From here to the turn up Panther Creek, attention is called to the
cascading haste of the river, especially in late spring when the
floods are high. The road goes down the river several miles from
the Panther Creek turn and leads to natural campsites and to
almost unexcelled fishing.
At 27 m. the road turns (L) up PANTHER CREEK, which in
June is a river in its own right. From this turn for more than twenty
miles the road climbs up an easy grade, and both the scenery and
the water become increasingly impressive. At about 31 m. is HOT
SPRINGS CREEK (L), of which the fountainhead is the mighty
BIG CREEK HOT SPRINGS. Many of these pools constantly
boil at a temperature hot enough to cook vegetables and meats,
and all of them together discharge enough water to send down
the canyon a steaming torrent of considei-able size. Long used
by remote settlers as a cure for rheumatism, these waters have
never been commercially developed, and are held in reserve now by
the Forest Service as the core of an eventual mammoth playground.
Panther Creek at 39 m. is beyond all description impetuous in its
haste. The traveler may be surprised and not a little appalled to find
a tiny ranch now and then along this wild creek. These men are the
last of the frontiersmen. With both time and tact, some of these
recluses can be engaged in talk, but those engaging them are urged
to lay aside their patronage because these independent folk are
never in a mood for insolence and know how to rebuke it thoroughly.
The beautiful trees with the golden yellow bark and deep black seams
are western yellow pine.
At 47 m. on this ci-eek is the junction with Napias and Upper
Panther Creeks, two of the maddest streams that ever came down
out of mountains. They come together in furious confluence to
T O U R F I V E 277
form Panther Creek, and at their junction is the LEACOCK
Ranch, typical of the hermitages that were accessible only by horse
or afoot until the Forest Service built roads here. The road at the
right goes to Forney and to the eastern entrance of the Primitive
Area. The traveler taking the left turn up Napias Creek will
probably reflect, especially if he leaves the road to look down
upon it, that this is the wildest stream he ever saw. This creek,
boiling down over indescribable cascades, does everything any
stream can do and remain upon its bed. In one stretch (not visible
from the road) it builds plunge upon plunge and goes under the
name of the Napias Creek Falls. At 50.5 m. an extremely difficult
road leads left to the ghost town of LEESBURG, once a city of
seven thousand but now a specter of twelve persons. The main or
Napias Creek road takes the turn across the bridge (R) and climbs
for several miles up a winding evergreen corridor to the summit. The
elevation at the summit 57 m. is more than 8,000 feet, and for those
who want a broader view there is a side road (R) leading to Lake
Mountain.
A hundred yards down from the summit is an unobstructed view
of the magnificent mountains in the east, ranging from the green
and old-rose flanks in the foreground to the deep blue of the tim-
bered crests far beyond. This winding descent for eleven miles is
breath-taking, with vision intermittently obscured by dense forest
or suddenly cleared to the sweep of distance where mountains look
like lakes of cobalt blue. At 60.5 m. is the improved Cougar Camp-
ground, and it is to be doubted that there is in Idaho a more beautiful
site than this one. Far up here on this broad watershed, it overlooks
a hundred miles of mountainous distance in the east and the Lemhi
Valley below. The descending road goes down the Williams Creek
Gorge with stone bluffs rising on right or left in amazing variety and
beauty. This drive from the campground down to the valley is
unsurpassed in Idaho. At 71 m. is the junction with U S 93 5 m. S of
Salmon City.
At 41 m. is Carmen Creek where Captain Bonneville
erected a temporary fort and log cabins in 1832. This was
the first building done by white men along the Salmon
River. U S 93 goes up Salmon River to enter a mountain
valley.
SALMON CITY 48 m. (4,003 alt.; 1,371 pop.) is the
industrial center of this valley. At the junction of the
Salmon and Lemhi Rivers, it is the seat of Lemhi County,
and except for Hamilton, Montana, is the largest city
within the radius of a hundred miles. Few visitors enter
this valley or this small subalpine town without comment-
ing on the beauty of the one and the picturesque site of
278 IDAHO
the other. Its chief attraction is probably ISLAND
PARK, a timbered area of five acres in the river above
the bridge, and a favorite campground.
1. Left from Salmon City on State 28 is an area with a dramatic his-
toric background. At 17 m. is a monument (L) to the memory of
Sacajawea, an Indian woman and sister of Chief Comeawait, who
came westward with Lewis and Clai-k and was restored to her people
in the Lemhi Valley. Midway between Tendoy and Lemhi (L) is a
monument to Chief Tendoy of the Lemhi Tribe. Tendoy was a full-
blooded Shoshoni Indian who befriended the whites during the Nez
Perce War and later when the Fort Hall Indians went on a rampage.
LEMHI 30 m. (5,100 alt.; 25 pop.) was named, like the forest, county,
mountain range, valley, and river for Limhi, a character in the Book
of Mormon. Mormons were sent from Utah to colonize this valley in
1855. They built Fort Lemhi, irrigated on a small scale, and were
prosperous until driven out by Indians three years later. Remnants of
the old fort are still to be seen, and one of the irrigation ditches is
still in use. Later, gold was discovered in this region, and a stam-
pede settled it, but today there is little save a few ranches and a
few ghost towns.
The story is told that during an Indian raid here one woman
became so excited that she leapt astride her horse facing its tail and
looked down in utter horror and cried: "Great God, they've shot
my horse's head off!" Whereupon, the legend goes, she remembered
that she had forgotten her daughter Hope and began to call "Hope!
Hope!" with anguished persistence, looking meanwhile at her head-
less horse. Her white friends heard her calling Hope, and, mistaking
the word for a battle cry, faced about and so completely annihilated
their foes that the only ones who escaped were 22,369 who jumped
into the river.
At 49 m, is LEADORE, which has achieved some renown because
of the distance its pupils travel to reach its high school. The average
distance covered daily by the seventy-seven boys and girls enrolled
in 1936 was thirty-one miles. Two sisters made a round trip of
ninety miles. In early days the stagecoach was held up by two
daring rascals on the summit south of Leadore and $37,000 was
stolen. The bandits barricaded themselves in cliffs above the Hahn
smelter and both were killed by infuriated prospectors who pursued
them. The gold, said to have been hidden in these bluffs, has never
been found and is only one of the legendary lost treasures that are
regarded by some as a part of Idaho's invisible wealth.
2. Right from Salmon City is the Yellowjacket road which leads
to the eastern gateway of the Primitive Area. This road is in poor
condition and only the most adventurous undertake it. It proceeds
by way of LEESBURG 15 m., which once had a main street a mile
long and a large Chinese colony. FORNEY 32 m. is another ghost
town, and YELLOWJACKET 44 m. is the end of the trail. Here,
and at MEYERS COVE southward a few miles, guides and all
i*^^'''
ii#^- #'
-rf^l;^
.Jf^'
•^^1^ aL.
The outlet of Redfish Lake
Stanley Lake
Roaring Lake
T O U R F I V E 279
necessary equipment are available for pack trips into the Area.
On the summit (8,370 alt.) between the Panther Creek and Yellow-
jacket watersheds there is a side road that takes a tortuous way
over the mountains and along ridges to the HOODOO MEADOWS
LANDING FIELD (L), which is on the margin of the Primitive Area
at an elevation of 8,600 feet. This point offers a view of the BIG-
HORN CRAGS, the most rugged range in the State.
3. Down the Salmon River by boat from Salmon City to Lewiston
through 310 miles of the Salmon River and lower Snake River
Canyon is a popular and adventurous excursion. This journey in
flat-bottomed scows has been declared by a geologist who made it
to be "a sporting and scenic event without equal." Arrangements
have to be made far in advance to allow time to make the boats,
and the trip is to be undertaken in any case only under expert
guides to be found in Salmon City. For a journey down the Salmon
River, see National Geographic Magazine for July, 1936.
U S 93 south of Salmon City runs across a mountain
valley. At 52 m. is a junction with a road.
Left on this road are the SALMON HOT SPRINGS 4 m., where
swimming pools are available.
At 53 m. is a junction with a good road.
Right on this road is the COUGAR POINT CAMPGROUND 10.5 m.
up Williams Creek. The turn is across a red bridge and then up a
magnificent gorge over a series of switchbacks that rise several thou-
sand feet. This camp is a large one with running water, shelter,
stoves, tables, and a site that it would be impossible to excel. (See
side tour from North Fork above.)
At 54 m. U. S. 93 enters the upper gorge of Salmon
River and follows it for more than a hundred miles. This
canyon under different light is never twice the same and
can be realized for what it is only in late afternoon or at
sunset. It is not, for the most part, a gorge of sheer walls
and overwhelming heights. It is remarkable rather in
the variety of its mountains and in the exquisite coloring
of its stone. There are ridges that sharply climb the sky
with the sculpturing reaching from shoulder to shoulder ;
there are huge monuments set apart by time and erosion ;
and there are rounded brown bluffs with slide-rock spilled
smoothly at their base like tons of copper. There are
picturesque collections of castles and towers, and in con-
280 IDAHO
trast with these are gently sloping flanks that look as if
they were carpeted with green or golden velvet. There are
magnificent solitary crags, and down below them, piled
against the road, are weird gray formations so pocketed
and cupped that they resemble cliff dwellings.
At about 82 m. is CRONKS CANYON, which is known
as the Royal Gorge of Idaho, and it is here that the most
beautiful coloring is to be seen. The rugged bluflfs here
standing as walls against the highway are stratified in red
and yellow, green and dark blue, and even under morning
sun are extremely rich. At sunset, when burning evening
streams up this gorge, this mountainside in its bewildering
loveliness looks as if a thousand broken rainbows had been
drawn into the stone.
At 86 m. is the lower end of the Pahsimeroi Valley,
wherein ranges one of the largest herds of antelope in the
world. The animals here and in adjacent regions are
estimated to number five thousand, and if a person is
alert he may catch sight of one while journeying through.
Country roads go up the valley on either side of Pahsim-
eroi River and lead to natural campsites and excellent
fishing.
At 93 m. is the junction with the Morgan Creek Road.
Right on this road is MORGAN CREEK from which the road runs
the full length of Panther Creek to FORNEY with a branch to Mey-
ers Cove on Silver Creek. This is the best of the eastern entrances
to the Primitive Area. (See side tour from North Fork above.)
CHALLIS 107 m. (5,400 alt. ; 418 pop.) is even more
remarkable than Salmon City for the beauty of its setting.
The mountains northeast of it are unusually picturesque
under any light and in comparison with mountains any-
where. They are unforgettable when seen at sunset under
a cloudy sky. The clouds lie low in blazing reefs and banks
with the distant peaks thrusting up like golden crowns ;
and down under the great flaming panorama the colored
bluffs upon the river look like a shimmering fog bank lost
in an extravagance of colored mist.
TOUR FIVE 281
At 109 m. is the junction of U S 93 with State 27
(see Tour 4). U S 93 turns to the right and enters the
miniature grand canyon of the Salmon River with the
walls sloping upward on either side for two thousand
feet. Though the coloring is not so rich nor the forma-
tions so various as in the Royal Gorge, this canyon is,
nevertheless, a mighty spectacle of splendor under the
evening sun.
At 116.5 m. is a junction with an unimproved road.
Right on this road up BAY HORSE CREEK are campsites and
fishing.
CLAYTON 132 m. (5,450 alt.; 106 pop.) looks as if a
flock of terrified buildings had come down a strong wind
to settle here in the gorge and were still troubled by lone-
liness and indecision. U S 93 continued up the river
through beautiful country and over fast winding road.
Wherever the highway has cut through the stone the color-
ing is exquisite. At 144.5 m. is Torrey's (L) , where cabins
and meals are available.
At 151.5 m. is the junction with a road.
Left on this road is ROBINSON BAR RANCH 1.5 m. This ranch on
the mouth of Warm Springs Creek at an elevation of 5,883 feet is in
the heart of the Salmon River Mountains and is fenced on all sides
by great watersheds and wild streams. It is equipped with a lodge,
two swimming pools, tennis courts, and horses for pack trips into the
surrounding area. The fish in the streams here are Dolly Varden,
rainbow, and cutthroat trout and three species of salmon.
At 153.5 m. is the junction of U S 93 with an unim-
proved road.
Right on this road is the YANKEE FORK DISTRICT. This road,
usually not open until early summer, leads to Bonanza and Custer,
two picturesque ghost towns. The Yankee Fork has many beautiful
campsites along its shores. At about 1 m. (L) and at about 2 m. (R)
are improved campgrounds maintained by the forest. This road goes
over Loon Creek Summit into the Loon Creek watershed, and on the
far side demands very careful driving through ruggedly beautiful
country. At the summit is another improved camp; and up the Yan-
kee Fork from BONANZA 8 m. there are three, the first right and
the other two left, within a distance of a few miles. The last of these
is about 30 m. from U S 93. There are dozens of streams touching
282 IDAHO
this road or not far from it, and in every one of them of adequate
size the fishing is excellent. BOYLE'S RANCH, L from Bonanza, is
on Loon Creek 28 m. among the Salmon River Mountains at an eleva-
tion of 5,785 feet with peaks standing from 9,000 to 11,000 feet
around it. This ranch specializes in hunting trips into the Primitive
Area. A good pack trail follows Loon Creek to the Middle Fork of
Salmon River, and en route over this trail a side trip can be taken
up Warm Springs Creek to the WARM SPRINGS and to the game
country or fishing areas in the wilderness of which Parker Moun-
tain (9,128 alt.) is the center. The SHOWER BATH SPRINGS on
Warm Springs Creek are large hot streams that burst from the
cliffs.
U S 93 goes through the CHALLIS NATIONAL FOR-
EST, and this, like the Salmon, is a huge game preserve,
rich in wild life and countless unfished streams. Deer are
by far the most abundant of the animals, but black bear are
plentiful, and pack trips in pursuit of them are popular
with hunters. The trees, like those in the forest north,
are chiefly lodgepole, Douglas fir, yellow pine, and Engel-
mann spruce. There is an unknown number of hot springs
in this forest, but of these the most unusual are to be
reached only by pack trails.
STANLEY 166 m. (6,200 alt. ; 154 pop.) is remarkable
for two reasons. The first is a feud which divided the
village against itself and sent a few of the residents
wrathfully two miles westward to establish a new town-
site. The U. S. Government recognizes only the old set-
tlement, the first entered on U S 93; but it looks pretty
shabby now and suffers strong intimations of becoming
another ghost, while the new Stanley looks down its nose
and continues to thrive. The second reason is the ex-
tremely beautiful country in which the Stanleys are re-
motely sheltered from the world. The Sawtooth Moun-
tains westward are a magnificent backbone of blue spires.
And in addition to these are the lakes.
Right from Stanley a road goes through the Stanley Basin and at
about 4.5 m. branches (L) through the forest to STANLEY LAKE
3 m. In June the meadows here are golden with the mountain butter-
cup and blue with the camas. The setting of Stanley Lake is perfect.
On the far side is a mountain flank with evergreens as thick as they
can stand, and beyond rise for several thousand feet the streaked
' V
Jus^
Alice Lake
Imogene Lake
T O U R F I V E 283
blue domes of the SAWTOOTH RANGE. A mile and a half up the
creek that flows into the lake is LADY FACE FALLS, a lovely cas-
cade that has for many persons the profile of a woman against its
descent. Northwest from here but still at some distance is the
Primitive Area.
This side road proceeds from the turn to the lake to CAPE HORN
RANCH 20 m. which has a lodge and cabins and a large outdoor
swimming pool. This ranch, like Boyle's, equips hunting expeditions
into the Area. The rugged picturesque Middle Fork country can be
reached by pack train in one day from this ranch. This road con-
tinues to Beaver Creek and then over Vanity Summit into the Sea-
foam and Rapid River section, and here again pack trips are avail-
able in almost any direction. A poor road proceeds and emerges at
Cascade on State 15, or turns southward by way of Lowman to Boise.
This country is perhaps as virgin as any to be found in the United
States.
U S 93 turns southward out of Stanley with the Salmon
River on the left and the Sawtooth Mountains on the right.
At 170.7 m. is a junction at the bridge with a dirt road.
Right on this road are BIG REDFISH LAKE 2 m. and LITTLE
REDFISH LAKE, which is about the size of Stanley Lake. Both, to-
gether with the large creek, are stocked with trout. Both are lovely
in their setting but not so perfect as Stanley. The hotel and cabins
on Big Redfish have never been opened (for reasons which seem quite
mysterious), but boats can be rented and campsites are many.
At the bridge on U S 93, particularly in springtime, the
beauty of the cascading water on either side is very im-
pressive.
At 176 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road is the ROCKY MOUNTAIN CLUB 1 m., which
is perhaps the most exclusive of the dude ranches in Idaho. At an
elevation of nearly 7,000 feet, it faces the Sawtooth Mountains
in the west and is famous for the view from its porch. It has
a spacious clubhouse flanked by cabins, together with sulphur
baths and hot plunges, and a lake for boating and swimming. This
resort outfits for pack trips into the Area, to the more inaccessible
lakes, or up the many canyon trails in its neighborhood. The rates
here are high.
At 181 m. the RUNNING SPRINGS RANCH, adjacent
to the highway (R), offers pack trips to both hunting and
fishing areas.
l».Vv
Over in the mountains on the right is the loveliest group of lakes in
Idaho, in any one of which there are really too many fish rather
284 IDAHO
than too few. They can be reached only by trail. A favorite trip
from this ranch is one of seven days with a new lake fished in each
day. HELL ROARING LAKE is seven miles out on the trail. IMO-
GENE is eight miles, and TOXAWAY, ALICE, TWIN LAKES, and
YELLOW BELLY are spaced at short intervals beyond. All of
them are surpassingly beautiful. Another favorite trip from this
ranch is in pursuit of black bear.
On the ranges to the left here are mountain sheep and
on those to the right are mountain goats. At 195 m. U S 93
leaves the valley and climbs over a series of spectacular
switchbacks for four miles to GALENA SUMMIT 199 m.
which, at an elevation of 8,752 feet, is the highest point on
any Idaho highway. The view from this summit is one of
the most remarkable in the West. For fullest realization
of the distances as well as of the majesty of the Sawtooth
Peaks a clear day and good glasses are necessary. Even
more breath-taking than the climb is the descent, for this
highway drops almost a thousand feet in the next five
miles. At 205 m. the stream leaving the wilderness in such
tremendous haste journeys under the unfelicitous name of
Wood River. Though shamelessly small in its beginning to
be masquerading as a river, it gathers its waters creek by
wild creek and emerges finally in respectable volume to go
down into Snake River Valley.
At 214 m. is a junction with a road.
Right on this road are EASLEY HOT SPRINGS .5 m. These are
held by lease by the Baptist Church, and just south of them is a
Baptist camp. All attempts to build a lodge and cabins here have
been frustrated by the Forest Service, but there are natural camp-
sites adjacent and a large outdoor plunge.
U S 93 proceeds southward down this mountain valley.
On the left is BOULDER PEAK (10,966 alt.) and on the
right 220.5 m. are improved campgrounds. At 226 m. is a
view in the north of the magnificent purple mountains out
of which the highway has come. GLASSFORD PEAK
(11,500 alt.) stands upon the summit in the north. At
227 m. U S 93 leaves the Sawtooth National Forest.
KETCHUM 229 m. (5,821 alt.; 200 pop.) is being
turned into a resort town which, it is hoped, will compete
/
1
1
?
Trail Creek near Ke+chum
T U R F I V E 285
with famous European winter playgrounds. There is a
large, modern hotel here, as well as hockey rinks and ski
slides. Summer visitors are served chiefly by the Bald
Mountain Resort with accommodations in its rows of
cabins for 125 persons. It has a large pool. Of excellent
fishing streams near Ketchum, Trail Creek is only a few
hundred yards out; Warm Springs Creek is westward a
half mile ; Lake Creek is 7 miles north. Baker Creek is 20,
and Prairie Creek is 22. The East Fork of Wood River is
10 miles south. The head of Lost River and the East Fork
of the Salmon are 15 miles into the northwest.
At 238.5 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road is the Aberdeen Hotel, where hot springs are
available.
HAILEY 241 m. (see Sec. b).
Section b. Hailey to the Nevada Line, 124 m.
HAILEY (5,342 alt. ; 973 pop.) is another lovely moun-
tain town and does not seem to be, but is, surrounded by
silver and lead mines. In the northwest, Red Devil Moun-
tain is in summertime a huge garden of wild sweet peas.
On other mountains here are crocuses and buttercups and
blue and purple pansies together with other wild flowers
less profuse, which make fragrant color of these hillsides.
U S 93 still goes south between two mountain ranges,
and attention is called in June and July to the loveliness
of Lookout Mountain which is the backdrop southeast of
BELLEVUE 5 m. (5,170 alt.; 375 pop.). At 15 m. the
Sawtooth country to the north is left behind, and the
sudden contrast upon entering the Snake River Plains is
complete and overwhelming. The sumimit of Timmerman
Hill offers on a clear day a broad rolling landscape of one
hundred miles of valley reaching clear to the Owyhee
Range.
At 23 m. is a railroad crossing and the junction with a
country road.
286 IDAHO
Right on this road is MAGIC LAKE RESERVOIR 5 m. The waters
of this reservoir, with a storage of 193,000 acre-feet, are a bright
blue when seen from distance and look in sagebrushed landscape like
a huge sapphire in a massive setting of chromium.
At 25 m. is a bridge across Wood River, sometimes
called the upside-down river because it is here that in one
place it is a hundred and four feet wide and four feet deep,
and in another, not far removed, it is a hundred feet deep
in its gorge and four feet wide. The traveler should pause
to view the amazing sculpturing in this gorge. Noteworthy
is the river itself, boiling over waterfalls and down a
canyon that a man can leap, but of greater interest are
the fantastic carvings in the black rock. The picture
looks as if an ancient potter had thrown his workshop
into this little canyon. There are almost perfectly sym-
metrical cups and saucers and even big vats that hold
many gallons of water after a rain. Especially smooth
in workmanship but grotesque in configuration is the
carving on the south wall just below the lower cascade.
On the west side of the bridge the river pours downward
in wild frenzy and on the east side, a few feet away, it is
a gently swirling apathy that seems to have lost both
its direction and life. Curious persons try to learn what
happens to this river as it passes under the bridge.
At 25 m. (just south of the bridge and just beyond
the black reefs that run out in a ragged spur to the high-
way) is the junction with a road.
Right on this road are the SHOSHONE ICE CAVES 1 m. Flashlight
or gas lantern is necessary equipment for these interiors. These
caves, by no means the most remarkable, are the only famous ones in
Idaho.
The caves here are really a series of craters that cover a quarter
section of land and lie against a rampart of volcanic lava that
seems to have been comparatively recent. The open gorge was at
one time a tunnel but its ceiling has fallen in, leaving a cavern at
either end. The eastern one is unimpressive. The other is ap-
proached through a huge bowl full of enormous stones that lead
downward to the entrance above which the roof is remarkable for
both the coloring of the rock and the ragged precarious way in
which it is sculptured. A little farther down are arches and natural
bridges, huge pits with their ceilings tumbled in, and flanking
alcoves. After going down over broken blocks of basalt, the descent
T O U R F I V E 287
comes to a platform of ice down which in early spring the water
filtered from above flows backward to freeze. The ceiling hangs
so low here that a person must stoop for a few feet until more
head room is found. Hanging in picturesque indecision are the great
stones above.
A descent is now made down a ladder frozen into a wall of ice.
If the entrance is made in late spring, this huge corridor ahead
will likely be barren and impressive only in the elemental strength
of its arching. It the entrance is in the fall after water and freezing
weather have worked their magic, this chamber will be a spangled
fairyland of ice crystals as if a glass blower had been busy here
exhaling millions of frozen petals and tiny spires. Just beyond,
the floor descends again down a sort of long ice toboggan slide,
but a platform has recently been laid the length of the cave. The
corridor now is a long one with a high arched roof that looks
eternal in the mighty imperturbability of its strength; and this, too,
in the appropriate season, is flaked and garlanded down its ceiling
and walls. The platform turns to the left past a carload of lava
blocks and proceeds to the end of the cavern, a wall of ice. This
is about forty feet wide and twenty feet high at the top of its
arch, with a concaved surface of unknown depth. Tons of ice have
from time to time been chopped off this wall in an attempt to
sound its thickness or to penetrate it and enter chambers that
possibly lie beyond.
The terrain in which these caves lie is called the Black Butte
Crater District. Indian legends allude to many phenomenal caves
and buried chambers in Idaho, but most of these have apparently
never been found. The area itself is much more mysterious than
it seems to be to the casual eye. It is a region of twisted and
woven lava, fallen-in tunnels, arched bridges, potholes, and pits.
Some of the pits are of considerable depth, and it is declared that
at certain seasons water can be seen flowing in the bottom of them.
Ice caves and walls, snow cellars, and tiny craters no larger than
a dishpan hold water on the hottest summer days; and there may
even be small pots of boiling water almost side by side with small
depressions of ice. Or side by side out of fissures, it is said, both
hot and cold water may run.
SHOSHONE 43 m. (3,968 alt.; 1,211 pop.) is the seat
of Lincoln County and of an irrigated farming belt and
sheep-raising area. Pronounced both Shoshone and
Shosho-nee, it is, of course, a corruption of Shoshoni, an
Indian word meaning Great Spirit. This town, founded
in 1882, was first called Naples. The interesting subter-
ranean nature of central Idaho was again revealed twenty
years ago when the owner of a hotel here drilled for water
and at a depth of twenty feet discovered that his drilling
tools had vanished. Investigation showed that there was
288 IDAHO
an enormous chamber under the town, apparently bot-
tomless, because stones dropped into the hole that had
been drilled were heard to strike walls from side to side
on their way down until they reached such depth that the
echoing reverberation could no longer be heard. The cav-
ern thereupon was used for the hotel's sewage, but nobody
yet has any idea of where the waste water ultimately goes.
Shoshone is the junction with State 23 (see Tour 4).
Right on state 24 is GOODINGi i6 m. (3,572 alt.; 1,592 pop.). Named
for a former Senator, it is, like Shoshone, the center of an agricul-
tural area. But Gooding, farther removed from the lava areas, is
more lush in its countryside, and closely resembles in June, like much
of the Twin Falls country southward, Iowa or Illinois. Right from
Gooding on State 46, oiled for 9 m. and then graveled for 8 m. to the
turn (L) is the GOODING CITY OF ROCKS 25 m. The complete dis-
tance from Shoshone is forty-one miles. This city is about four miles
long by one and a half miles wide, with several main gorges and
countless tributaries running through it. The rock formations are of
shale and sandstone with no lava, and many of them are beautifully
colored. The stones, often rising to more than a hundred feet, are of
all conceivable shapes with strange pillars and columns, weird ter-
races and facades, cathedrals and obelisks and spires. It is one of
the best known and most frequently visited of Idaho's wonderlands.
The eastern entrance is remarkable chiefly for the great round
stones gorgeously colored that look as if they had been laid thin
slab upon slab. About a mile into the city is a sign on a rock
which indicates a canyon six hundred feet to the right; and from
here the view affords the best impression of sheer bulk, weight,
and eternity. Many of these colored piles show the stratigraphic
nature of the stone. At the bottom of this gorge is pure cool water
for those who are prepared to eat lunch here.
But this is not a garden of the gods as is so commonly declared.
It is a garden of monuments that have been sculptured out of
eternity by the incalculable reaches of time. South, to the left, is
another deep canyon along which are innumerable curious forma-
tions. The most impressive view of the whole area is to be had
two miles from the entrance where upon the right is unfolded a
great ragged panorama of summits and gorges and ruins. The
aspect, seen from a distance, is almost overwhelming not in its
several items but in the indiscriminate way in which monuments
and towers and castles have been tumbled and spilled. Almost
every shape of stone is to be found here, from cones to pyramids,
from flat fortress walls to minarets, from balconies to stratified
stairways. The coloring though subdued is rich and satisfying with
reds and browns dominant. The city runs into the west still for a
1 For side trip to the Malad gorge, river, lake, and rift, see Tour
3, Sec. b.
Middle and third chambers, Shoshone Ice Caves
Salmon Dam
Twin Falls-Jerome Bridge
TOUR FIVE 289
considerable distance and though much curious work is to be found
farther on, there is nothing quite so spectacular as this acreage of
eroded and lonely masterpieces of weather and wind. In fact, the
more a person looks at the assemblage of thousands of separate
items, the more he is likely to fancy that some ancient sculptor of
enormous size and restless ambition worked here for a century and
left his dream unfinished.
Those who spend only an hour here, looking casually and seeing
nothing perfect in itself, go away disappointed; but those who ex-
plore and examine at close range the amazing variety, are speech-
less before the miracle of what wind and sand can do. Especially
intended to silence the sceptic is a descent into either gorge and
a view of the monuments against the sky line.
JEROME 62 m. (3,660 alt. ; 1,976 pop.) is the seat of
Jerome County and the center of a large Carey Act irri-
gation project. In contrast with the volcanic areas north
and east, this countryside is burgeoned like a garden in
summertime and is enviably situated between the purple
mountains north and the luxuriant Twin Falls country
south. Out of it U S 93 now suddenly approaches the
canyon of Snake River and crosses the gorge on the only
toll bridge in operation in the State. Formerly, before
this and the Hansen bridges were built, the deep gorge of
the river was an impassable barrier between the fertile
regions north and south, and Twin Falls, in consequence,
was almost as remote from Jerome as it was from Boise.
THE TWIN FALLS-JEROME BRIDGE 73 m., the
most impressive one in Idaho, has a cantilever span of
1,350 feet, a distance between towers of 700 feet, and
a height from water level of 476 feet. It is the third
highest bridge in the West. Completed in 1927, it has
done more than to facilitate travel between the two irri-
gated areas. It offers, too, the finest perspective to be
had on one of the most beautiful sections of the gorge.
Persons who frequent this bridge for the view declare
that a casual glance does not in any degree summarize
what is to be seen. Superficially, there are two walls here
five hundred feet in height and dropping in most of their
distance sheer to the slide-rock or the river ; and there is
a river which, having just come over Shoshone Falls,
seems no longer to be in any haste; and there is some
290 IDAHO
vegetation upon the shores. A closer scrutiny discovers
much in addition to these.
After crossing the bridge, U S 93 proceeds to TWIN
FALLS 76 m. at the junction with U S 30. (For this city,
as well as for the points of unusual interest in its environs,
see Tour 3, Sec. b.) U S 93 follows U S 30 westward out of
Twin Falls and at 82 m. turns southward. Adventurous
persons with the time and a wish to explore may find the
country south of Twin Falls to their taste, for across this
sparsely settled area there is probably more to be dis-
covered than is yet known.
At 85 m., or 3 m. south of the departure from U S 30,
is GODWIN SIDING (L), and at 86 m. is a frame house
sheltered by tall trees. This was the home of Lydia True-
blood Southard, Idaho's notorious female Bluebeard, who
vented her emotions over a period of years by poisoning a
baby daughter, a brother-in-law, and five husbands. She
is now in the penitentiary at Boise. HOLLISTER 96 m. is
the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road the NAH SUPAH HOT SPRINGS 3 m. afford a
very large swimming pool, supplied by natui-al hot water, together
with camping and recreation grounds. The name (spelled also Nat
Soo Pah) is an Indian word meaning living or life-giving water. A
mile southwest of here is a famous landmark and early watering
hole called WILD HORSE SPRINGS.
AMSTERDAM 101 m. is the junction with an unim-
proved road.
Left on this road are HOT CAVES 4 m., a mile and a half south-
east of the Goat Springs Ranch. It was here in 1885 that a prospec-
tor and two companions were boring a tunnel into the mountain
when the prospector suddenly and unexpectedly disappeared from
sight. His companions discovered that he had quite literally fallen
into the mountain and into a stream of hot water that flowed
through a subterranean tunnel. Years later, after artesian wells
had been sunk at Goat Springs, this flow of hot water ceased, and
today the interiors are dry. Six underground chambers have been
explored, and doubtless many more remain unseen. Stalactite and
stalagmite form.ations cover the floor, walls, and ceiling, ranging in
length from a few inches to twenty feet. Because the tunnel en-
trance is now caved in and because numei'ous rattlesnakes have
taken a fancy to the caves, no attempts have recently been made
TOUR FIVE 291
to enter. Adventurers interested in exploration can enlist the assist-
ance of Ora Jones, one mile west of the Goat Springs Ranch, who
knows of another entrance.
Possibly it was in this region that Hy Conner, an old-timer,
suffered his most humiliating experience. One night he was sitting
by a campfire, listening to the melancholy of wind in the pines and
to the complaints of his companions, one of whom was telling of
a hard-boiled foreman who docked his men if they were off the
job. Said one: "If a man was off en his job only a minute, why
that-there foreman, he out with his watch and looked hard at it
and docked the poor bugger for that much lost time." It was then
that Hy yawned and put a fresh quid in his mouth and spoke.
"Boys," he said, "you ain't heard nothing, not a plumb belly-
guzzled thing. You should a-known the foreman I worked under
when we was a buildun the Oregon Short Line. That man wouldn't
take no excuses. That man was tough. I remember one time I was
runnun in a cut with a single jack and drill and I drilled into a
missed hole and the powder went off and blowed me high in the
air. The boys, they looked up and watched me and they said first
I looked like a little bird and then I looked like a bee and then
I went plumb out of sight. In about ten minutes they seen me
coming back and at first I looked like a bee and then I looked like
a bird and down I come right where I was a-settun before I left.
I still had the hammer in one hand and the drill in the other and I
set right to work. But, say, you know what that son-of-a-buzzard
of a foreman did? He docked me for the fifteen minutes I was
gone!"
ROGERSON 106 m. (4,803 alt. ; 280 pop.) is a tiny ham-
let, but the largest town, nevertheless, in this part of the
State. It stands on the historic site formerly known as
Deep Creek Meadows.
1. Right on a dirt road is SALMON DAM 8 m., one of the largest
concrete structures in the State. It is 220 feet high, 450 feet long,
and 119 feet thick at its base; it impounds a reservoir with a ca-
pacity of 180,000 acre-feet; and on this artificial lake swimming,
boating, and fishing are popular. There are campsites but no im-
proved grounds. Five miles above the dam on the Salmon River
is the BRACKETT RANCH, and three miles west of it is
BROWNS BENCH, a flat mesa, near which, in the canyon (now
inundated), occurred a famous robbery. A stage, crossing the river
here in 1888, was held up by a lone rascal, but before he had gone
far with his loot he was overtaken by cowboys and shot from his
horse. He escaped, even so, by crawling into a cave, and the furious
cowboys, after waiting several hours for him to appear, closed the
entrance and fancied that they had entombed him alive. Upon
returning a few days later, they were astonished to find the en-
trance open and the dead robber lying inside with a map which he
had apparently drawn during his last spasm. This map gave the
292 IDAHO
location of his buried loot, and this for many years has been
searched for but never found.
2. Left from Rogerson is a junction of two roads 14 m. in the
MINIDOKA NATIONAL FOREST. The right turn goes south about
10 m. to the MAGIC HOT SPRINGS, where there are a small hotel,
thirty-four cabins, a restaurant, and hot baths. Rates are very
nominal. These waters, strongly charged with radium, were also a
favorite with Indians, who made pilgrimages to bathe in them in
both the fall and spring. The left turn leads into the forest, where
there are seven improved campgrounds within a distance of a few
miles. The Pentstemon Camp is named for the beautiful blue flower
which during its season completely covers the camp area. Leading off
the road into the forest right or left are branches that proceed up
streams to fishing and to natural campsites against a background of
evergreens. The ranger station is 18 m. from Rogerson, and 5 m.
beyond it is a summit at an elevation of 7,600 feet, from which is
visible Mount Borah in the north or the Humboldt Mountains in
Nevada or the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Two miles down from the
summit is Camp Pettit in a thicket of aspens and pines, with trails
leading out to beaver dams or to fishing streams. Because of the
congestion of game on this forest it is not uncommon to see, and
especially in morning or evening, herds of deer ranging in number
from few to as many as two hundred.
At 124 m. U S 93 crosses the Idaho-Nevada Line, 65 m.
north of Wells, Nevada.
STATE OF IDAHO
MAP OF
SECTION nz
1938
T0UR3
^0 .-rsWiSl:: fl' <; %; 9 poi
STATE HIGHWAYS
PAVED- GRAVEL
DIRT- GRADED
CONNECTING ROADS
■>•• STATE BOUNDARIES
;-=^ SECTION BOUNDARIES
(») COUNTY SEAT
HER TOWNS
NT OF INTEREST
KES - RESERVOIRS
)^ f*^ RIVERS- CREE
■ '-^^ MOUNTAINS- PEAKS
S ECTIONH
STATE OF IDAHO
MAP OF
SECTION 31
1936
TOUR NO. 6
New Meadows — McCall — Cascade — Boise. State 15 and
44. Payette River Route.
New Meadows to Boise 122 m.
The Oregon Short Line of the Union Pacific System paral-
lels State 15 between McCall and Horse Shoe Bend. Scenic
Stages follow the route throughout.
Accommodations limited. This, a mountain route over
improved road, is one of the most attractive drives in
the State. Between Boise and northern Idaho it is usually
the highway followed to its junction at New Meadows
with U S 95.
State 15 from its junction at New Meadows with U S
95 goes southeast through a forested canyon.
At 4 m. is a junction with an unimproved road.
Left on this road are GOOSE and HAZARD LAKES 22 m. This
whole area between New Meadows and McCall is being developed
as a recreational center, and no part of it is more attractive than
Hazard Lake, not only for its good fishing but also because it is
a beautiful body of water with perfect campsites and a magnificent
background. The road to it is fairly steep and winding and fairly
rough, but it is passable, and without its difficulties this lake would
not be the enviable retreat that it now is.
At 9.5 m. is a junction with a fair road.
Left on this road is BRUNDAGE LOOKOUT 8.2 m., to which the
grade is easy except in the last mile. There is nothing spectacular
in the view from this lookout: it is one of soft loveliness rather
than of grandeur. Blue lakes lie upon the south, surrounded by
forested slopes, with McCall in plain view and with the valley
beyond it reaching to Cascade. In the west is a meadowed basin
framed by dense growth that is as blue as the lakes when the sun
is right; and in the east is a denuded backbone of peaks. The
distance south or west is blue, with the farthest ranges looking like
color without substance, and with very nebulous form.
294 IDAHO
At 10.5 m. is the junction with a fair road.
Left on this road is a long journey, with return by Cascade, that is so
adventurous that it demands tolerance of fair or poor roadbed and
the fortitude necessary in exploring a vast wilderness. The terrain is
so vast that it is impossible to grasp the extent of it, even from the
highest peaks. Off the main route countless digressions are avail-
able. This side trip, not open to travel until June, can be made in a
day; or for those with time and taste for the primitive it can be made
in a month or a summer, with almost no repetition of road and with
no monotony of scene. The Middle Fork of the Salmon River in the
Primitive Area is accessible by pack trip from strategic points on the
loop, or the remotest reaches of the Thunder Mountain region and
the last zeniths of Chamberlain Basin. The topography in general is
of rugged mountainous landscape, heavily blanketed with forests,
laced with thousands of streams, broken open by canyons more than
a mile in depth, and topped by summits that stand two miles above
the sea. The wind moves gently here, or falls into a skyful of lazy
breezes, each burgeoned with the fragrance of wild flowers and
evergreens and a clean sky.
The road at first parallels a river to UPPER PAYETTE LAKE 17 m.,
where there is a campground. From here it proceeds, with GRANITE
MOUNTAIN on the left, over SECESH SUMMIT. At 28 m. is the
junction with the Burgdorf road (L). At BURGDORF 2 m. are
natural hot springs, a swimming pool, campsites, and fair accommo-
dations. The Burgdorf road runs northward to FRENCH CREEK
HILL and drops down over spectacular switchbacks through deep
forest to the main Salmon River (see Tour 7, Sec. b, side tour from
Riggins).
The main I'oute proceeds from the Burgdorf junction to WARREN
43 m., a small mining town in a canyon. From the air (see A Trip
into the Area, Sec. II, Ch. Ill) the dredgings here look like a carpet
of magic. The road, turning southward at Warren, follows in turn
Warren Creek and Elk Creek to the South Fork of the Salmon River.
The road has now entered the PAYETTE NATIONAL FOREST,
the entire area of which is a primitive wilderness of hunting and
fishing. Leaving Elk Creek, the road now climbs the ELK CREEK
SUMMIT (9,000 alt.), the highest vantage point on the main route.
The trees here are chiefly limber pine. From this summit the road
goes down Government Creek to EDWARDSBURG 70 m., where
there are a post office and a landing field. The road now climbs again
to cross PROFILE GAP (8,500 alt.) and then descend by way of
Profile Creek.
At 88 m. is the junction with a dirt road. The main route takes the
right turn here. Left on the other road is STIBNITE 11 m., another
small mining village and one of the western jumping-off places into
the Primitive Area. The main route proceeds (R) to YELLOW PINE
South Fork of Payette River
Payette Lake
TOUR SIX 295
91 m., another ghost in this huge area. South from Yellow Pine the
main route follows Johnson Creek. At 94.5 m. is the GOLDEN GATE
CAMPGROUND. Riordan, Hanson, Bear, and Trapper Creeks, as
well as innumerable others, now come down from the zeniths; and
on every side and from every summit is an uninhabited wilderness
as far as human vision can reach. At 105 m. is the junction with
another branch road (L). This, the old Thunder Mountain road, leads
into the THUNDER MOUNTAIN AREA of early mining days. The
region was named for the rumblings of great landslides that came
down the mountains during the days of the gold seekers. The ghost
town of ROOSEVELT is in this area, though it is now a lake because
a landslide caused its inundation; and RAINBOW PEAK is also
there, an unusually beautiful mountain when sunset strikes the
naked colors of its stone.
The main route turns right at the Thunder Mountain junction. Along
the way now are Halfway, Coffee, Rustican, Trout, Park, Pid, Sheep,
Lunch, and other creeks. Forest signs indicate various points of
minor interest right or left from the main road: Big Baldy, Chilcoot
Pass, Thunderbolt, and the Knox Trail. At 117 m. is LANDMARK,
and it is hardly more than that. South from Landmark the main
route proceeds to a junction at 122 m. with a poor road (L) that
leads deeper into the wilderness.
This branch road goes southward and at 15 m. forms a junction. The
right turn leads to the DEADWOOD DAM and RESERVOIR 10 m.,
a favorite spot in this wilderness for fishermen. The left turn pro-
ceeds to a junction at 13 m. The right turn here goes to LOWMAN
(see Tour 3, Sec. c, side tour from Boise), and the left turn goes
through Bear Valley and down the Stanley Basin to STANLEY 35
m. (see Tour 5, Sec, a).
The main route turns right at the Deadwood junction. At 132 m. is the
junction with a road (L) that leads to WARM LAKE 1 m., a favorite
spot in this Forest. Covering about six hundred acres, it offers ex-
cellent fishing, campgrounds, hotel and cabins, and a large outdoor
swimming pool, maintained by the Forest, 2 m. south. The road along
the west side of the lake continues for a few miles and then terminates
in trails just beyond the South Fork Ranger Station. Many Forest
campgrounds are being prepared in this region.
West from the Warm Lake junction, the main route proceeds to
KNOX 134 m., another village in this huge Forest. The main route
goes southwestward from Knox. At 134.5 m. is the junction with a
road (L) to Warm Lake. At 135 m. there is a free campground on the
South Fork of Salmon River. The main route now follows Trail
Creek and climbs to BIG CREEK SUMMIT 142 m. (6,608 alt.), and
then drops to follow Big Creek and enter Scott Valley. The flora
along here is chiefly yellow pine, lodgepole, and fir.
At 157 m. is the junction with State 15 at Cascade.
296 IDAHO
State 15, going southward around Payette Lake, takes
its way among matured yellow pine trees.
McCALL 13 m., (5,025 alt. ; 651 pop.) is upon lower
Payette Lake in the heart of one of the State's chief
recreation areas. The town itself is rather unprepossess-
ing, but the lake is as blue as water can be, with shades
varying from delicate pallor to depth that is almost purple.
McCall outfits for pack trips into the surrounding area.
Of many available, only two are suggested here.
1. The first, demanding three days or more, is from upper Payette
Lake by way of Twenty Mile Creek south to Duck Lake and then
down the North Fork of Lake Fork to the Lake Fork Ranger Sta-
tion. Both fishing and scenery are excellent.
2. The second begins at Roy Shaw's ranch and goes via Boulder
Lake, Buckhorn Creek, the South Fork of Salmon River, Fitzum
Creek, and the East Fork of Lake Fork to the above station. The
time required is four days or more.
South of McCall State 15 goes down a meadowed valley
that lies between a river and a forest.
CASCADE 42 m. (4,800 alt.; 726 pop.), the seat of
Valley County, is a microcosm of Idaho's past and present.
All the industries, including lumbering, mining, agricul-
ture, and stock raising, are apportioned to this town and
its valley as perhaps in no other part of the State ; and so
in miniature is afforded a composite picture here of most
of what Idaho has to offer. Northward is one of the prin-
cipal resort areas; roundabout are a rich valley, a tre-
mendous forest, and outlying mines; and eastward is a
vast playground.
State 15 S of Cascade goes through a narrow valley
which in summertime is meadowed with wild flowers,
with the blue camas unusually conspicuous; and then
along the North Fork of Payette River, lazily serene in
this stretch.
At 60 m. is a hamlet called SMITHS FERRY, left
across the river.
T U R S I X 297
Out of Smiths Fei'ry southward down the river on an improved
forest road is the PACKER JOHN LOOKOUT 8 m., from which
at an elevation of more than 7,000 feet is afforded a view which
of its kind is second to none in the State. The circumference swings
around a microcosm of Idaho, with timber as dense as meadow
grasses, with mines in the whole domain east of the Payette River,
with agriculture in the valleys, with cattle and sheep in the grazing
areas of the forest, and with a natural playground lying unbroken
clear around the compass. Everything that Idaho offers is sum-
marized here.
In all directions this tower overlooks a tumbled mountainous
terrain, with human vision reaching far and faltering and coming
to an end in the cloudy uncertainty of the remotest peaks. South-
west is Garden Valley with crests serrated in row on row beyond
it to the Boise Basin and all its ghost towns. Eastward in the
foreground are low forested flanks, but vision lifts to Scott Moun-
tain, highest zenith on a far-flung arc, and then breaks suddenly
a hundred miles to the far pale majesty of the Sawtooth Range.
Northward are Round and Long Valleys, with Cascade visible in
the distance against the farther backdrop that frames the Payette
Lakes. In the northwest densely wooded slopes fall down to the
river; and beyond is the stupendous hulk of blue shadow piled
upon the eastern wall of Snake River Canyon. Westward is High
Valley, a subalpine meadowed basin, with dark hills flung like arms
around it; and farther the mountains run north and south in sharply
sculptured backbones with the Crane Creek Reservoir like a jewel
among them. Far in the west is the nebulous wonder of the Wal-
lowa Mountains in Oregon, and far in the south is the Owyhee
Range.
Sunsets here, no two of which are ever the same, run from a
vast and flaming acreage of molten towers and burning reefs to the
soft lilac witchery of sky pastures in which long lines look like
golden brooks and outlying reaches are a purple tangle of cloudy
fern. The eastern mountains lie under veils of blue air and vanish
into such depth and softness that the forests shimmer like black
carpets; and the ridges westward are slopes of delicate light with
each crest drawn like a purple line across the sky. The one at the
left, catching the fires more remotely, deepens into piles of shadow
that melt and merge with the sky; and the Seven Devils Peaks far
in the north fade into an amorphous kingdom of mist and are
indistinguishable from the clouds around them. The reservoir
awakens to a sheet of yellow light and then becomes an exact image
of the sinking sun, with the streamers of its flame like the upper
half of an enormous golden star. As the sun itself sinks behind
its burning reefs, the western foreground comes out black, and the
stupendous sweep beyond it burns low to blue draperies; and the
eastern terrain rolls away in piles of dusk.
298 IDAHO
State 15 now follows the North Fork of Payette River
which in springtime rolls furiously in white cascades with
few interruptions, with dense evergreen growth carpeting
the walls down to its edge. The trees here are chiefly
yellow and lodgepole pine. At 74 m. is an improved camp-
ground (R).
At 78 m. is the junction with an unimproved road,
State 17.
Left on this road is GARDEN VALLEY 9 m. This road enters the
Payette National Forest and penetrates the enormous wilderness
adjacent on the west and south to the Primitive Area. At 12.6 m.
is the junction (R) with the road leading southward to the ghost
towns of Placerville, Centerville, and Idaho City. At 13.6 m.
the road enters the forest and proceeds by creek and peak and
valley to the junction at 20.6 m. (L) with a road that leads up the
Middle Fork of the Payette River. This diversion road, going up
the river about twenty miles, is a lovely trip for those who wish to
camp at its end and proceed by trail to such excellent fishing
streams as the upper reach of this river or to its larger tributaries
beyond the end of the road.
East of this junction State 17 goes to Lowman 35 m., and from
here a road leads northward along Clear Creek in the Boise
National Forest and then enters the Payette Forest and proceeds
by way of Cache, Sack, Elk, and Pole Creeks to a junction (34 m.
from Lowman) with another road that leads eastward through
Bruce Meadow to Stanley Basin in the Sawtooth area (Tour 5, Sec.
a), or westward to a left turn that goes south to the Deadwood
Reservoir and unsurpassed fishing, or to a left turn that goes
north to Landmark. Once a person has penetrated this huge central
Idaho terrain he can vanish into utter wilderness over several
forest roads or by innumerable trails. The whole region is National
Forests, and all the turns are in consequence well marked.
At 91 m. is a junction with an unimproved road (for
this spectacular drive, see Tour 3, Sec. b, side tour 5 out of
Boise).
From HORSE SHOE BEND 93 m. State 15 leaves the
valley of the river to pursue a devious course over numer-
ous elbows and climb to a summit. Very beautiful in June
or July are the denuded mountains on the left. The high-
way drops down over curves and switchbacks into the
T O U R S I X 299
Boise Valley, with the breadth of it southward to the
Owyhee Range.
At 115 m. is the junction with State 44 which turns
leftward into BOISE (see Tour 3, Sec. c) on U S 30 (see
Tour 3, Sec. c).
TOUR NO. 7
(Canada) — Bonners Ferry — Sandpoint — Coeur d'Alene
— Moscow — Lewiston — New Meadows — Weiser. U S 95.
North-South Route.
Canadian Line to Weiser 494 m.
This, the only N-S highway in western Idaho, and only
recently completed, is one of the most picturesque scenic
routes in the West. Following rivers, skirting National
Forests, or climbing mountains in spectacular switch-
backs, it unfolds in one panoramic vista after another,
and offers side trips which penetrate excellent hunting
and fishing areas or lead to mountainous depths and
heights of unusual grandeur.
No railroad parallels this highway, but the buses of various
motor coach lines serve sections of the route.
Customary accommodations, with improved campsites
from time to time.
Section a. Canada to Lewiston, 241 m.
In EASTPORT (2,600 alt.; 25 pop.), Idaho's most
northern town, the Forest Service maintains a free tour-
ist camp for those held up while clearing the customs.
From here U S 95 goes down the valley to COPELAND
16 m. at the junction with State 1, and then continues
through the diked lands of the Kootenai Valley, which
stretches from Canada to Bonners Ferry as flat as a floor.
This valley, once a series of lakes and tiny islands, was
not reclaimed until 1922. Because of its deep deposits of
silt it has proved to be an agricultural wonderland. The
river itself is a wide and lazy stream, usually muddy and
always moving gently. In the west are the high peaks of
the Selkirk Range.
At 31 m. is the junction with U S 2.
TOUR SEVEN 301
Left on U S 2 is MOYIE RIVER 5 m. Of waterfalls in Idaho there
are some with more grandeur and might but there is probably none
lovelier than the Moyie. Upstream from the bridge the river is
visible for a considerable distance, cascading from plunge to plunge
and swirling its green pools after each fall. It comes down then
black and leisurely to the power dam and pours over it like pale
green ice and churns at the bottom in a gorgeous foaming picture
that looks like steam. But for a few feet only: after bursting into
white violence and losing its direction, the water rolls downward
again, green in its body but covered over with backwashing ridges
that look as crisp as celery. Under the bridge it is a very dark
green that revolts in indecision before taking its way below the
bridge in a great plunge. Seen from the bridge, the color varies
with the sun and the sky, but a common aspect is of a stupendous
spraying of millions of white and green and orchid gems. This
picture is made more remax'kable by the huge beautiful stone for-
mations on either side that draw the river in and confine it and
force it to deliver itself through two narrow channels. In the chief
one of these the green water plunges over a stone escarpment and
then leaps into a wide spread that falls, not like water but like
tons of colored glass crystals. From the rocks below it boils out
in incomparable beauty. At the very bottom is a white seething
mass like lace that rolls away as if the river here were full of
green slush. Farther below are cascades and another plunge before
the stream goes serenely between its narrow walls. U S 2 crosses
the Montana Line (1,819 alt.) at 24 m.
U S 95 drops to cross the deep Kootenai River over a
handsome bridge.
BONNERS FERRY 33 m. (1,779 alt.; 1,418 pop.), the
seat of Boundary County, is the center of an agricultural
and lumbering area. It is at the foot of forested slopes
and on the Kootenai River, which from here is navigable
to Nelson in British Columbia. Fishing is excellent in the
river east of the town. Bonners Ferry has its own munici-
pal power plant, as well as the air of a place that is thriv-
ing and knows it.
South of Bonners Ferry, U S 95 follows the narrow
canyon of Deep Creek to Naples 45 m., which stands be-
tween the two halves of the Kaniksu National Forest.
The Bitterroot Range in the east is usually obscured by
haze that looks like deep blue smoke, but in the west the
mountains are stark and strangely barren for northern
Idaho. The whole aspect changes soon to more softness
302 IDAHO
of scene, to a lush excess of flora, and to beauty without
that grandeur which touches these far northern moun-
tains. Some peaks here hft naked shoulders above the
timber line, and now and then there are rock formations
of bald granite. The mountains of northern Idaho gen-
erally, except in parts of the Bitterroot Range, are
densely wooded, softly obscure in haze, and do not thrust
up in the majestic spires found in the central part of the
State.
SANDPOINT 67 m. (2,086 alt.; 3,290 pop.), the
seat of Bonner County, is enviably situated on LAKE
PEND D'OREILLE which is fourth or fifth in size of the
fresh-water lakes lying wholly within the United States.
Formed by the drainage from Flathead Lake in Mon-
tana through the Clark Fork River, it has a shore line of
125 miles and an extreme depth of 1,800 feet. It abounds
in trout and whitefish and affords attractive campsites
along its shores. This city, served by three railroads, is
also the junction of U S 195 and State 3 (see Tour 11). Of
unusual interest is the SANDPOINT BRIDGE upon U S
95 at the southern extremity of the city. Though not
spectacular in comparison with the great bridges of the
world, it nevertheless spans the lake for a distance of
two miles.
Southward from Sandpoint, U S 95 is in summertime
a wilderness of flowering syringa upon its borders.
At COCOLALLA 81 m. is the junction with an im-
proved road.
Left on this road 7 m, are beautiful views of Lake Pend d'Oreille.
They are the best views upon the west shore line.
At GRANITE 89 m. is the junction with an unim-
proved road.
Right on this road is an extraordinary area of swamps and lakes,
as well as what is said to be one of the best duck-hunting regions
in the Northwest. GRANITE LAKE .5 m. (L) is a small body of
v/ater that looks almost black because it is walled in by ledges.
KELSO LAKE 1 m. (L) is considerably larger and is surrounded
by mountains and meadows. There are unimproved campsites here
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Surf-riding on Lake Coeur d'Alene
TOUR SEVEN 303
and swimming is popular. North of it 2 m. over poor road is
BEAVER LAKE, and still farther are HOODOO VALLEY and the
HOODOO LAKES to which ducks come by tens of thousands.
At ATHOL 93 m. is the junction with improved roads.
1. Left on the road is BAYVIEW 8 m. on the beautiful southern
extremity of Lake Pend d'Oreille at the base of Cape Horn Peak in
the north and of Bernard Peak in the south. There are accommo-
dations in Bayview. There are also regular excursions by boat
to Clark Fork, Sandpoint, and eleven other stops on both sides of
the lake. Fishing in this water is unusually good.
2. Right on the road is SPIRIT LAKE 10 m. Out of the small
town of Spirit Lake a road goes westward and drops down a hill
to pass a huge lumber mill and proceed to the shore of beautiful
SPIRIT LAKE 1.5 m., named for an Indian legend. This lake is a
perfect gem flanked by high mountains, and is unusual in having
a solid rock bottom that holds the water as an enormous bowl. The
road past Silver Beach goes over the mountains to Spokane. This
lake, like others in this region, has little to offer in developed
beaches but much in its own calm loveliness.
From the town of Spirit Lake, the road goes 12 m. southward to
TWIN LAKES 22 m., which are right from the highway .5 m. REST
HAVEN BEACH, rather deceptively named, is owned and managed
out of Spokane. The lower of the Twin Lakes is small but perfect
in the pure clarity of its water and in its wooded shore lines and
forested backdrop. LUGER PARK is north (R) with private
cabins; and beyond it a left turn leads to ECHO BEACH across
from which, and accessible only by boat, is EXCELSIOR BEACH.
From Echo Beach a right turn leads to the upper lake. Though
both of these lakes are becoming more popular with visitors, they
have been exploited very little, and offer only poor accommodations
or none at all.
From the lower lake the road proceeds southward to RATHDRUM
27 m., a shipping point for farm products, and turns eastward to U S
95 34 m.
At CORBIN 96 m. is the junction with an improved
road.
Left on this road is WHISKEY ROCK LODGE 6 m. on the east
shore of Lake Pend d'Oreille and in the heart of an attractive
fishing and hunting area. Available here are cabins, boats, bathing,
and pack trips. This place was named for a legend. Two old-timers
were going by boat up the lake when darkness forced them to make
camp. Taking with them only their bed and a gallon of whiskey,
they discovered on the next morning that their boat had vanished;
and for three days they devoted themselves to their jug and medi-
tation before rescue came.
304 IDAHO
At 105 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Left on this road are HAYDEN CREEK 7 m., the HUDLOW
MOUNTAIN LOOKOUT 9 m., and MOSKINS CREEK 13.5 m.
This road also proceeds to Elmore and Rockaway Beaches on Hay-
den Lake, where cabins and boats are available.
At 107 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Left on this road are HAYDEN LAKE 1.5 m., and the COEUR
D'ALENE COUNTRY CLUB, a well-kept 18-hole golf course, and
the BOZANTA TAVERN, a popular resort. This lovely little lake,
framed by mountains, looks as if it were an offspring of Lake
Coeur d'Alene. It has a clean unmarred shore line shadowed by
evergreens that afford numerous campsites; and it has so many
bays that its shore line is five times in length what would be ex-
pected of a lake of its size. Sheltered by mountains, the water is
usually as serene as a cloud in a windless sky.
At 112 m. is the junction with U S 10 (see Tour 10).
Left is the COEUR D'ALENE AIRPORT, the first mu-
nicipally owned in the United States.
COEUR D'ALENE 114 m. (2,158 alt.; 8,297 pop.)
stands on the site chosen by General Sherman for a fort
that was built in 1878 and abandoned in 1901. This
beautiful city, the seat of Kootenai County, got its first
impulse to growth from mining and lumbering indus-
tries; and though these are still important, Coeur
d'Alene's more recent development has been steadily in
the direction of horticulture and dairying, and as a play-
ground. Enviably situated on the beautiful lake of the
same name, and the hub of a huge area of lakes, Coeur
d'Alene stands on U S 10, the northern highway artery,
and draws from all adjacent territory, including Spokane
in the west. It is in consequence a city of homes first,
and only secondarily an industrial and commercial center.
A long promenade follows the lake, with bath houses,
water slides, diving towers, and other facilities for water
sports. Annually on the third, fourth, and fifth of July,
Coeur d'Alene holds its water regatta, which includes
speedboat and sailboat racing, water skiing, surfboard
riding, log rolling, and swimming.
A campus view
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TOUR SEVEN 305
Out of the city in any direction are scenic drives, the
most important of which are covered in other tours. Most
beautiful is that along the eastern side of the lake (see
Tour 9), or eastward through the Fourth of July Canyon
(see Tour 10) or northward to other lakes (this tour).
The Coeur d'Alene National Forest lies eastward from the
city and can be penetrated over a number of roads.
A boat leaves daily for a trip down the lake and up the St. Joe River,
and offers not only unusual beauty of water and landscape, but leads
also to excellent fishing streams. Accommodations are available
along the route, and cabins and cottages can be rented.
U S 95 skirts the lovely city park (L) and crosses a
bridge on its way southward from the city (for alternate
route to Moscow, slightly longer but the loveliest drive
for its length in Idaho, see Tour 9). After passing a huge
mill, U S 95 swings around the lake and climbs over a
fine piece of highway architecture, with farms below
looking like gardens. For many miles now the country
has been logged or burnt over, with most of it restored
to beauty by fields or young growth. From time to time
signs indicate roads which lead (L) to Lake Coeur
d'Alene ; but this body of water, though never far away,
remains invisible from U S 95. (For a description of Lake
Coeur d'Alene, see Tour 9.)
PLUMMER 149 m. (2,650 alt.; 346 pop.) is on the
edge of the Coeur d'Alene Reservation, which was offi-
cially set aside in 1873. These Indians, like the Kutenais,
are primarily engaged in agriculture. The agency for this
reservation is in Moscow, but the subagency is west of
Plummer 3.5 m.
Left on improved road from Plummer is HEYBURN STATE PARK
7 m. This park, occupying a basin and looking from the mountains
around it like a sunken garden, covers 7,838 acres, of which 2,333
are water, with most of the remainder heavily timbered. The park
strongly suggests that a part of all that is loveliest in northern
Idaho's lakes, mountains, and trees had been taken to build the
perfection of this playground. The lakes are the CHATCOLET,
HIDDEN, BENEWAH, ROUND, and a part of COEUR D'ALENE,
of which the first is one of the most beautiful in the State, cupped as
306 IDAHO
it is like a huge bowl in a mountain with evergreens reaching down to
its edge. Upon it is a floating hotel as well as boats. There is also
boat service at ROCKY POINT. Fishing is good in all the lakes and in
the St. Joe River which winds among them; but the only hunting
allowed is for ducks within season. There are two good beaches,
and both swimming and boating lure as many visitors as fishing.
More than 150,000 persons visited this area in 1935 and the num-
ber is rapidly increasing.
Just S of TENSED is DESMET 164 m. (and little
more than a name) . In Desmet is the SACRED HEART
MISSION which was founded by Father De Smet in 1842.
Another of Idaho's historic buildings, the Father's house,
built in 1881, was burned to the ground in 1936, and only
a few of its more valuable possessions were saved. Among
these was a communication from Pope Pius IX in 1871,
believed to be the only papal brief ever addressed to an
Indian tribe. Fronting the Mission, also partly destroyed
by fire, is a group of one- and two-room shacks which are
occupied only over week ends when Indians come in from
the countryside for the Sunday services. Around Desmet
is an area cultivated by the Kutenai Indians. Comparing
favorably with those of white men in both their manner
of operation and in living conditions, these farms suggest
the progress that these Indians have made.
U S 95 crosses the western end of the ST. JOE NA-
TIONAL FOREST and takes its way through an idyl of
farms and the changeless loveliness of cultivated hills.
Westward is the mounded plumpness of eastern Washing-
ton, and eastward is the misty wilderness of virgin timber.
At 184 m. is the junction with U S 95 Alt. (see Tour
9). U S 95 now climbs or descends through evergreen
hallways, looks over great cultivated vistas, or passes
through villages, each of which is an incongruous home-
liness on the landscape.
MOSCOW 203 m. (2,564 alt. ; 4,476 pop.) is the seat of
Latah County, the home of the STATE UNIVERSITY, and
the center of the pea industry of northern Idaho. The
campus, overlooking Paradise Valley, and unusually at-
tractive in its landscaping, lies upon an eminence (R) in
TOURSEVEN 307
the southwest part of the city. Its farther grounds slope
down into a natural amphitheater which has been laid out
as an athletic field; and to the left are the university's
flower gardens and forested slopes, a part of the Depart-
ment of Forestry's arboretum. The campus covers 685
acres.
The town itself is in the heart of the prolific Palouse
country, with its rich soil of black volcanic ash and its
unusually heavy yields of grain and peas. On B Street in
the eight-hundred block is the site of old Fort Russell,
now commemorated in a monument. Until a few years
ago some of the stumps of the old stockade could be
seen, but now all have been removed save a few which
remain buried in the earth.
South of Moscow, U S 95 proceeds over landscape that in
summertime is a pastoral of farms, with almost no inter-
ruption of the solid pattern of hay and grain. This rolling
prairie is green in June, golden in August. GENESEE
221 m. (2,677 alt. ; 555 pop.) is the heart of it. At some
distance south of Genesee, U S 95 swings westward into
Washington to connect with U S 195, and returns to the
summit of the famous LEWISTON HILL (2,750 alt.) . The
descent is two thousand feet in the next ten miles.
Lewiston Hill, unlike the White Bird or Gilbert, is rela-
tively barren, and the road lies below like the segments
of an enormous boa, with each loop hugging a denuded
brown mound. In the foreground below is the Clearwater
River with its bridges, with Lewiston on its far bank. To
the right is Snake River and west of it, in Washington, is
Clarkston, beyond which the flanks ascend to the vast
rolling watershed of eastern Washington. Running into
the south is the deep canyon of Snake River, dividing
State from State and lifting away to the high blue re-
moteness of the Seven Devils area. Leftward from the
canyon the mountain range is almost a perfect line upon
its backbone.
At the foot of the Lewiston Hill, U S 95 crosses the
mighty Clearwater River to enter Lewiston (see Sec. b).
308 IDAHO
Section b. Lewiston to Weiser, 253 m.
LEWISTON (741 alt.; 9,403 pop.), the seat of Nez
Perce County and the lowest spot in Idaho, stands at the
junction of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers. At its west-
ern end it is connected with Clarkston in Washington by
a steel bridge across Snake River. Lewiston was the first
incorporated town in Idaho, the first capital of Idaho Ter-
ritory, and is today the largest city in the State north of
Salmon River. It is the center of a grain and fruit belt,
of mining and lumbering interests; and is Idaho's only
"seaport." Annually about five hundred carloads of fruit
are shipped from here, and one thousand of livestock, as
well as considerable quantities of minerals and lumber.
The city is served by three railroads, by river launches,
and by air.
Lewiston, standing on a most unusual site, flanked
by great mountains in all directions, and bounded by two
mighty rivers, is the most picturesque city in the State.
Its one long street, with a river on the north, with an
upland table of beautiful homes and orchards on the south,
is strongly reminiscent of many small European cities,
and especially of those down in canyons in which the
main street feeds off to a water front or to a terraced
hillside. Upon the rolling terrain south is the attractive
campus of one of the State's two normal schools. Roads
lead out of the city to points of interest, and excursion and
freight boats go by water up Snake River to the beautiful
Box Canyon.
1. Right from Lewiston are various surfaced roads leading to its
more than four thousand acres of orchards, of which three fourths
are given to cherries. Visitors can see the picking, packing, and
shipping of cherries as they ripen in the latter part of June; and if
fortunate enough to be in Lewiston in May they can witness the
Cherry Blossom Festival, the chief gala event of the year, not ex-
cepting the fall fair and rodeo in September.
2. Right from Lewiston up the south bank of the Clearwater River
is the gigantic plant of the POTLATCH FORESTS, INC. 1 m. This
is (1936) the second largest sawmill in the world, the first in size
being upon the Omar River in Russia. Visitors are welcomed to this
TOURSEVEN 309
mill. At the gate a card of admission is given, together with a
map of the plant and directions. Most impressive is the fetching
of logs out of the pond, the huge band saws with their miraculous
precision of machinery, and the box factory and planing mills.
Sawdust here is now converted under enormous pressure into logs
for fireplaces.
The major plant, covering 360 acres, employing 850 men, pow-
ered by 1,200 electric motors, protected by 21,000 automatic sprin-
klers, and running night and day in three shifts, turns out 1,200,000
feet of lumber every 24 hours. This is enough lumber to build 200
five-room houses complete, or to make a pile 1,000 feet high and
10 feet square, or to lay a board walk 4 feet wide for 56 miles.
The sawdust used in Pres-to-Logs is laid under a pressure of 165
pounds to the inch, and is packed to a greater density than that of
the hardest coal. The machines operating in the Pres-to-Log plant
are entirely automatic.
U S 95 goes up the north bank of the Clearwater River.
The valley on all sides climbs away into rolling distance.
This part of Nez Perce County is very fertile and supports
many orchards, chiefly cherry, as well as extensive grain
and dairy farms. Formerly, tens of thousands of logs
were floated in springtime down this river from the great
white pine forests eastward, but the log booms in the
future probably will not have the spectacular proportions
of those in the past.
At 11 m. is the junction with State 9. (See Tour 8).
At this junction is SPALDING, now little more than a
tiny museum and a historic spot. It was here in 1805 that
Lewis and Clark pulled their dugout canoes upon the shore
of the river and traded with the Nez Perce Indians. An
early settlement was made in 1836 by the Reverend Henry
Spalding, a missionary whose influence among the Nez
Perces was largely responsible for their friendly attitude.
It was in or near Spalding that the first school and church
in Idaho were established, the first seed planted, the first
gristmill operated, the first printing press installed, and
the first blacksmith shop built. Although neither the first
nor the second home of the Spaldings is standing today,
several of the trees which he planted can still be seen.
Land has recently been purchased in this area for a
Spalding Memorial Park, and it is intended that this will
310 IDAHO
include the ancient Indian burial grounds where the
bodies of the Spaldings now lie. The site of the old Lap-
wai Mission is one of the most historic spots in Idaho.
It is now commemorated in an eighteen-ton boulder, bear-
ing a bronze tablet, at the bridge over the Clearwater
River.
Here, too, is the SPALDING LOG CABIN MISSION
AND INDIAN MUSEUM, now privately owned by a de-
scendant of the Nez Perce Chief Timothy. A small ad-
mission fee is charged. The owners, supported by certain
affidavits, claim to be in possession of the cabin built by
Spalding in 1836, as well as several relics, including a
Lewis and Clark canoe. Some authorities, denying these
claims, believe the cabin is the one built by John Silcott
in 1861 to be used as an office for the Lapwai Agency. In
any case, even if the eagle feather ceremonial bonnet was
not worn at the signing of the William Penn Treaty in
1682, or even if the buckskin dress and necklace were not
worn by Sacajawea, the Indian woman who accompanied
Lewis and Clark on a part of the journey, it is admitted,
nevertheless, that this cabin contains a fine collection of
Indian exhibits, many of which were passed down from
generation to generation by Nez Perce Indians.
LAPWAI 15 m. (970 alt. ; 416 pop.) is an Indian sub-
agency and has the sanitarium of the Fort Lapwai Reser-
vation, which was set aside for members of the Nez Perce
tribe. The Indians on the reservation number fourteen
hundred; their holdings consist of fifty-six thousand
acres of land. To the Indian dances here, said to be
inferior to the Hopi Snake Dance or the Navajo Rain
Dance, the public is only rarely admitted. CULDESAC
17 m. is the home of a State game farm devoted chiefly
to the rearing of Chinese pheasants. The barren country
westward is unusual in lush northern Idaho : it is neither
mountain nor prairie but an obstinate hybrid.
The CULDESAC HILL 17 m. (sometimes confused with
the Winchester) is one of the most impressive pictures
in the State. Like the Lewiston, Gilbert, and White Bird
TOURSEVEN 311
Hills, it offers a remarkable panorama, but it cannot be
fully appreciated until the summit is reached and vision
turns back and downward. Down this mountain, farms are
picturesquely landscaped for miles, lying steeply on either
side of the highway from elbow to elbow. This is doubtless
the best area in the State to show how completely cultiva-
tion has possessed many of the more difficult slopes, as well
as to suggest the great unirrigated wheat belts common in
the West. From the topmost reach of the farms it is still
three miles to the summit.
WINCHESTER 38 m. is typical of many small north-
ern towns. Its unprepossessing aspect is enhanced by the
pastoral midsummer loveliness around it. If this town
were in southern Idaho against a background of bleak
hillsides or the gray of sagebrush or the yellow of alka-
line wastes, it would not seem so incongruous. In sylvan
northern Idaho, where even the cows in distant pastures
look fragrant, some of the villages appear to have been
blown out of mining areas.
Much of this rolling landscape is in summertime a
garden of wild flowers. The blue and purple flowers in
such profusion are lupine; the flowering bushes are the
syringa. Upon the farms of this vast tableland there are
innumerable tiny forests of evergreen, chiefly fir ; and fir
trees and wild flowers make fragrant wilderness of every
untilled pasture and every roadside.
GRANGEVILLE 79 m. (3,323 alt. ; 1,360 pop.) is upon
the south side of one of the most beautiful valleys in the
State. In 1898 rich gold ore was found in the Buffalo
Hump Mountains southward, and inasmuch as Grangeville
was the main gateway to these mines, the town boomed
for a considerable while. After the mines were exhausted
it became the industrial center of a large agricultural
area that had been developing meanwhile. On the second,
third, and fourth days in July, and for three days in Sep-
tember, Grangeville has annual rodeos and festivals.
Primitive regions are accessible from here (see Tour 8).
312 IDAHO
Right on unimproved road through virgin country in the NEZ-
PERCE NATIONAL FOREST is FLORENCE 32 m., once regarded
as the richest gold camp in the State, and now, after long years of
slow dying, showing renewed activity. There are excellent fishing
streams throughout this area. On this road to Florence are the
Cold Springs and Sheep Springs improved campgrounds.
The WHITE BIRD HILL 84 m. (5,430 alt.) is almost
as famous as the Lewiston Hill, but its northern approach
is unimpressive, save for the luxuriance in summertime
of the wild flowers. This ascent to the summit at 89 m. is
only five miles by easy grade. On the summit the flora
is chiefly white fir with a little Douglas fir and pine. The
vista from here is breath-taking. Far southward, and
flanking out east and west, are canyons blue with mist,
backbones reaching high in purple obscurity, and the
nebulous zeniths of the Seven Devils Peaks. The descent
from this hill drops over a series of elbows twenty-eight
hundred feet in the next twelve miles, with the view
closing in, as the road falls down, and releasing first the
vast canyons southward and the forested backbones;
dropping next to the immense low foreground of brown
and green foothills ; and finally closing the shutter to the
narrow canyon and the village of White Bird. Unlike the
Lewiston Hill, this mountainside in summertime is a con-
tinuous garden of wild flowers, and especially at the higher
levels. Most conspicuous are wild rose and fireweed, crows-
foot and ocean spray, wild geranium and blue pentstemon,
all of them laying loveliness upon the acres and fragrance
upon the miles.
WHITE BIRD 100 m. is only a small sheltered village
and the center of a grain area that unfolds over the
southern hills and rolls out of sight. It was here in White
Bird Canyon that the first battle in the Nez Perce Indian
War was fought in 1877, with a complete victory for the
red men. When in 1919 a steam shovel excavated the
skeleton of an unknown soldier, Idaho County erected a
granite shaft to commemorate the dead of this historic
fight.
1
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TOUR SEVEN 313
U S 95 follows White Bird Creek for a short distance
and then proceeds up Salmon River (for a description of
this impetuous stream, see Tour 5, Sec. a). At 112 m.
cabins and campground are available (L) . The mountains
up this river are bleak in arid colors, with the rock of their
torsos naked and eroded, with their flora usually baked
like brown parchment. At 121 m. the steep mountainside
is picturesquely terraced with tiny farms. It is only 10 m.
from the highway here over to the mighty gorge of Snake
River, with the mountains standing high between the
two streams. Though the westward canyon is the deepest,
the one which U S 95 now follows is one of the deepest
in North America.
RIGGINS 132 m. (1,800 alt.; 25 pop.) is only a village
in an extremely deep canyon. (All of Idaho south of here
is on Mountain Time.) Visible from Riggins is a trail
across the river which climbs the mountain to Chair Point,
an excellent lookout.
At 133 m. is the junction with a fair road.
Left on this road is the gorge of the main Salmon River, which
forms its junction with the Little Salmon at Riggins. This lower
part of the canyon of the River of No Return is no more spec-
tacular than that of the Little Salmon which U S 95 follows: the
more magnificent reaches lie farther eastward and are not available
by highway. But there is a remarkable picture at 8 m. in the river's
cascades, with the dark green water plunging under a stone wall
that rises several hundred feet. The stone here is beautiful in both
color and stratigraphy, with some of it like veined marble, with
some like rounded walls over which colored paint has been spilled.
At 10 m. a right turn crosses the river to the RIGGINS HOT
SPRINGS .5 m. with accommodations for forty guests. At 10.5 m.
there is a campground (L), and at 13.5 m. the rock walls are black
except where dynamiting has shaled them off to uncover huge
white or red slabs. A little farther the suspension cables of the
Manning Bridge are anchored in these ledges of granite. At 19 m.
wild French Creek comes down on the right, and up this canyon is
a good road that climbs over breath-taking switchbacks through
dense forest to reach the summit and proceed to Burgdorf (see
Tour 6, side tour E of McCall). The road up Salmon River does not
go much farther, but is being slowly built mile by mile into the
vast primitive area that lies between here and eastern Idaho (see
314 IDAHO
Tour 5, Sec. a). When the highway is finally completed up this
river, it will doubtless be one of the finest scenic drives in the
State,
At POLLOCK 141 m. (hardly more than a name) is
the junction with a fair road.
Right on this road is a RANGER STATION 6 m., from which
is offered at present the easiest point of access by pack trip to
DRY DIGGINS LOOKOUT. No accommodations are now available
here, but inquiry should be made, as it is intended by the Forest
Service to build a road along the backbone between the Snake and
Salmon Canyons, with branches off to U S 95. The view from this
lookout is worth almost any extreme in hardship for a person who
seeks a view which of its kind is said to be unequaled. Vision here
drops down for more than a mile over the shelved and terraced
eastern wall of the Grand Canyon; to the river which, though
broad, looks from this height like a very narrow path of snow
because of the cascading waters; to the steeply descending forested
reaches in the foreground or the mighty western wall that climbs
away to the peaks in Oregon; or to the blue timelessness of
mountains which on all sides vanish into distance. Few persons
except miners and Forest Rangers have ever stood on this lookout;
and one of the latter, a man who has seen all the major grandeur
in North America, says this is the only sweep of depth and distance
that ever left him profoundly shaken.
At 145 m. are cabins and free campground (L). At
147 m. FALL CREEK is a sudden foaming descent on the
right ; and at 149 m. BOULDER CREEK (R) comes down
from the heights. At the Black Bear Inn 156 m. meals
are available, as well as outfitting for pack trips into the
surrounding area.
Right from here on good road is the SMOKY CAMPGROUND 6 m.
on Boulder Creek. This is one of the best and most popular camp-
grounds in the forest.
At the MEADOWS VALLEY HOT SPRINGS 162 m.
is a free campground (R) .
U S 95 continues to follow the canyon of the Little
Salmon River, but now leaves the broad view, the barren
mountains set like great piles, each a solitary mound of
its own, and with no pattern or meaning in the indis-
criminate arrangement, and enters a forested area. Still
farther south, the canyon widens, spreading now and
Typical Nati
Lookout
ai»^'
/.d^
Rapid River Falls
TOUR SEVEN 315
then enough to allow a tiny ranch as large as the palm of
a giant, and less frequently closing to the width of the
river and the highway. At sunset, shadows fall down
from the ledges with almost the cool depth of night and
make magic of the cascading river which in nearly every
mile of it is in frantic haste.
NEW MEADOWS 167 m. (3,850 alt. ; 220 pop.) is in a
beautiful round meadowed valley. The site of the older
town is eastward on State 15 (see Tour 6).
Between New Meadows and Council the distance is a
gradual transition from the mountainous landscapes of
northern Idaho to the valleys and plateaus of the south.
U S 95 now winds through a forest of yellow pine, one of
the most beautiful of the conifers.
At 175 m. is the junction with an unimproved road.
Right on this road is the LOST VALLEY RESERVOIR 6 m., where
fishing (trout and catfish) is unusually good.
At 180 m. is the EVERGREEN CAMP (L), an im-
proved site. This reach of U S 95 is in the WEISER NA-
TIONAL FOREST.
STARKEY 187 m. is nothing but a small resort (R).
It has a hotel, cabins, and an excellent large outdoor pool
supplied by hot radioactive water. The flow from more
than twenty hot springs here is so large that only a few
are diverted to the pool. The others are used for a hydro-
electric plant. The management proudly declares that this
is one resort in Idaho where beer is not served, and declares
that it is very popular with Idaho teachers. In any case,
the water is refreshing and the mountain air is redolent
with yellow pine. There is fishing here in the Weiser
River, and especially in Lost Creek, three miles over the
hill westward.
COUNCIL 197 m. (2,914 alt.; 355 pop.) was once a
spot where Indians gathered for huge powwows.
Right from Council a fair road goes up a narrow valley, entering
at 14.5 m. the Weiser National Forest, which lies like a horseshoe
around the head of Weiser River. It is a relatively primitive area
316 IDAHO
with good hunting and fishing in its less accessible parts. At 15 m.
is the HORNET CREEK RANGER STATION (R). The road now
climbs easily through a logged-off area in which solitary stately
yellow pine trees remain; and at 31 m. forks. The right turn leads
into a fisherman's paradise. BLACK LAKE 15 m. and EMERALD
LAKE 3.5 m. north of it by trail are popular; and besides these
there are many other lakes, all small and lovely, and hundreds of
streams. On Bear Creek and on Black Lake are improved camp-
grounds. Roads lead east and west into wilderness.
The left turn goes to CUPRUM 39 m. (from Council), the ghost
of an old mining town. Here there is a small hotel (and practically
nothing else) ; and away from it roads and trails radiate in nearly
every direction. The hotel outfits pack trips. A hair-raising road
goes downward from Cuprum (L) into Snake River Canyon 8 m.,
and thence down the river for 12 m. to bring into view some of the
more majestic reaches of the gorge. A bridge crosses to Homestead
in Oregon.
North out of Cuprum a road climbs 10 m., sometimes sharply, to
KINNEY POINT and to SHEEP ROCK, an overhanging shelf. Of
all points accessible by highway, this rock affords the best view of
the Grand Canyon.
This Canyon of Snake River, known variously as Hells Canyon,
the Seven Devils Gorge, and the Grand Canyon, is the deepest on
the North American Continent. Idaho highway maps give its depth
as 5,500 feet. As a matter of fact, the depth from He Devil Peak,
7 miles east of the river, is, according to the U. S. Geologic Survey,
7,900 feet, whereas the depth from Bright Angel Point, an equal
distance from the Colorado River, is 5,650. This is also the nar-
rowest major gorge on this continent. The phenomenal aspect of it
is matched only by the fact that it is comparatively unknown and
rarely visited. Parts of the canyon are richly colored in shades of
red, orange, and yellow, and parts are densely bedded with timber.
Downstream from Homestead, both the river and the gorge narrow
gradually, and near Kinney Creek the stream enters Hells Canyon.
"Aside from the impressive boldness and height of the steep walls,
perhaps the most striking feature of the canyon is the extreme
roughness of the solid rock faces."i The river in this section often
narrows to less than 100 feet and drops almost 13 feet to the mile.
After 38 m. the canyon widens to 400 feet at a height of 300 feet
above the river; but soon the walls close to form the well-known BOX
CANYON upstream from Lewiston. From Brush Creek past the
mouth of Deep Creek there is a stretch of four miles of perpendicular
walls rising 2,000 feet to a bench and then reaching sheer and high to
a second shelf. Boats can go through by portaging the Steamboat,
Deep, Hells, Brush, and Granite Creek Rapids. The worst of these
1 Water-Supply Paper 657.
TOURSEVEN 317
is the latter. The volume and gradient of the river are comparable
with those of the Colorado in Cataract, Marble, and Grand Canyons,
or of the Green River between Hells Half Mile and Disaster Falls.
This Seven Devils area N of Cuprum, named for seven serrated
peaks standing in a semicircle and reaching thousands of feet into
the sky, is thought to be potentially one of the richest mineral
regions in the world. The chief mineral is copper, of which no one
has tried to estimate the enormous deposits, with a rich content of
silver and gold. But there is no transportation into the canyon, and
all the surveys that have been made have discouraged the under-
taking of either railway or highway.
MESA 205 m. (2,900 alt. ; 25 pop.) is the center of one
of the largest apple orchards in the world. Upon the roll-
ing hills here are twelve hundred acres which in harvest
time demand a crew of six hundred persons. The orchard
is equipped with two huge cellars, each of which can store
one hundred and fifty thousand bushels of fruit ; and with
an elaborate irrigation system which brings the water
over the hills by means of a network of syphons and
flumes. The fragrance of this orchard in bloom drenches
the air for miles.
CAMBRIDGE 220 m. (2,651 alt. ; 336 pop.) is at the
junction with an unimproved road.
Right on this road is HEATH 19 m. at the upper reach of the long
Snake River Canyon that lies between Weiser and Lewiston. This
side tour is only for careful drivers. The road going up the river is
now and then cut out of great overhanging walls of stone, but the
gorge here is only a small preface to the overwhelming proportions
farther north.
U S 95 southward from Cambridge leaves the blue haze
of mountains and forested slopes. It now lies through a
fertile area that has given to Washington County a leading
place in the production of rye, alfalfa, and peas, and in
dairying.
MIDVALE 230 m. (2,544 alt.; 203 pop.) is at the
junction with an unimproved road.
Left on this road is the CRANE CREEK RESERVOIR 16 m., where
natural campsites are available. Ducks and geese are abundant
here in season, and there is fair fishing.
318 IDAHO
At 241 m. is the junction with an unimproved road.
Right on this road is the SPRING CREEK CAMPGROUND 15 m.
on Mann Creek. The Kiwanis Club of Weiser has established
several camps along this road, each with excellent water and im-
provements. The popularity of the area has depleted the fishing
in Mann Creek.
At WEISER 253 m. is the junction with U S 30 (see
Tour 3, Sec. c).
TOUR NO. 8
Spalding — Orofino — Nezperce — Kooskia — Grangeville.
State 9 and State 7. Clearwater Route.
Spalding to Grangeville 108 m.
A branch line of the Canadian Pacific Railroad remotely
parallels this route.
This alternate loop between Spalding and Grangeville is
38 m. farther than the distance between the two cities
over U S 95, but is a much more beautiful route. It is espe-
cially attractive to those seeking side trips into huge vir-
ginal areas where both scenery and fishing are excellent.
Valley-and-mountain route over improved road. Accom-
modations less than average.
State 9 branches E from U S 95 at Spalding (see Tour
7, Sec. b). From this junction State 9 goes up the broad
and mighty Clearwater, with the prairies, feeding west-
ward to Lewiston, yielding to flora that steadily becomes
richer and more abundant. The mountains along here are
striking pictures in the way farms hang down slopes so
steep that it looks as if animals would lose their footing
and roll into the river.
At 33 m. is the junction with State 7.
Left across the river is OROFINO (1,031 alt.; 1,078 pop.), the seat
of Clearwater County and the gateway to one of the greatest
forested areas in the Northwest. This town, built in a canyon, and
confined on all sides by mountains save where the Clearwater enters
and leaves, still thrives lustily, being supported by both timber and
mines. Three miles down the river (L) is AHSAHKA, the site of
a Lewis and Clark camp in 1805.
The junction to Orofino is at the junction also with
State 11.
Left on this road is the CLEARWATER NATIONAL FOREST.
The distance of this side trip to its farthest reach is 102 m., but the
road is being extended year by year, and inquiry should be made in
Orofino. This Forest lies between the St. Joe on the north and the
320 IDAHO
Selway on the south, where its boundary is the historic Lolo Trail
over which Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce warriors made their
phenomenal retreat. Inasmuch as most of this area is ruggedly
mountainous with few roads, it offers unusual attractions to both
the hunter and fisherman. State 11 proceeds straight into the heart
of it.
It is 8 m. to GREER, and here the road swings eastward, leaving
the river and climbing 2,370 feet in 10 miles. It then levels off
into a rolling mesa that extends clear to the Bitterroot Mountains.
The ascent E of Greer is one of the finest in the State, with the
massed mountain ranges expanding and lifting and flowing away
in vast evergreen carpets pooled with green fields. To the east or
west as far as the eye can see runs the Clearwater River, with its
canyon narrowing to blue haze and with the river itself vanishing
in a path of silver. The motorist usually expects to descend after
reaching the summit but there is no descent. The terrain rolls
away to purple horizons with almost no suggestion of valley or
canyon, but with the tilled foreground as a sweeping prelude to
the forested reaches beyond.
WEIPPE 26 m. is one of the largest producers of lumber in the
State. After leaving it, the road enters deepening forest, chiefly
of yellow pine and fir. Millions of feet of dead logs, felled but never
removed, lie scattered for miles in every direction. After ten miles
the forest closes in, with white pine showing now, straighter and
taller and cleaner than the other trees. PIERCE 45 m. was founded
in 1860 after the first discovery of gold in Idaho and is still active.
The road forks here, the right turn going to the BUNGALOW
RANGER STATION 28 m. and the left turn leading to HEAD-
QUARTERS 14 m. and to the end of the road 42 m. beyond. So
immense have lumbering activities been in this area that a person
unused to such scenes is likely to be startled. Headquarters is
unusual in the arrangement of the houses: they stand in a circle
after the manner of early wagon trains when attacked by Indians;
and are built to facilitate movement and communication in winter
months when the snow lies from twelve to fifteen feet in depth.
Nine miles farther is the ghost of HOLLYWOOD, a town built in
1936 for the sole purpose of photographing a moving picture. The
traveler has now penetrated a wilderness of forested country that
is the delight of everyone who has seen it. There is good fishing
in all the streams, there are thousands of big game animals in the
adjacent terrain, and there are accommodations for pack trips
available at several points. Not a mile of this long side tour will
be regretted by the most exacting seeker of wild and beautiful
country.
State 7 now ascends for 8 m. over a mountainside so
luxuriant in its small flora that it is often impenetrable.
Wikh
1^1 r-' i
p ■"■■^i
to:
Through the Clearwater National Forest
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TOUREIGHT 321
This is the beauty of landscape when it is not, as so often
in southern Idaho, devastated by sheep. From the summit
of the GILBERT HILL (3,350 alt.) is a view in north or
east over forested mountains with farms scattered and al-
most lost among them, even to the highest summits ; and
beyond is the purple Bitterroot Range on the Montana-
Idaho Line. Far down in the canyon below is Orofino. The
highway goes southward out of this wooded region and
crosses another panorama of green and golden hills.
NEZPERCE 57 m. (3,142 alt.; 444 pop.), on the edge
of the Kamiah Valley, is the seat of Lewis County and the
industrial center of this rich agricultural area. After
leaving Nezperce the road overlooks mile after mile of
rolling tilled hills that are a part of the great agricul-
tural wealth of Lewiston; and if there were corn here
instead of wheat, it could easily be imagined that this
countryside was Missouri. From the summit (3,250 alt.)
the highway descends through gardens for seven miles.
Landscape could hardly be lovelier in summertime, no
matter whether it is the bronzed hills westward or the
green and lavender slopes southward or the valley below.
KAMIAH 74 m. is a richly flowering village that does
little to shame its picturesque environs. The road swings
to the right over a long bridge out of Kamiah and enters
a long narrow valley that is very beautiful, with its farms
hanging like pictures framed with evergreen against the
soft witchery of the hills. The Clearwater River offers a
strange sight in early summer as it gradually separates
itself into two streams. On the far side is the yellow
South Fork and on the near side is the lucent green or
silver of the Middle Fork, the two streams flowing side
by side as one river with the yellow now and then pene-
trating like smoke. Up the river a few miles they cascade,
the one rolling in yellow, the other in green, and still go
side by side without interfusion. Just below their junc-
tion they are almost as separate in their identities as they
would be with a wall between.
322 IDAHO
KOOSKIA 82 m. (1,261 alt.; 411 pop.) is a village in
a canyon here at the junction of the Middle and South
Forks of the Clearwater. It may seem to be quite remote
from the comforts and amenities of civilized life, but a
road from here penetrates the Selway area.
Left from Kooskia on State 9 is the MIDDLE FORK. This drive up
the river is through a canyon, with ranches laid like pictures
on the gentle slopes. The flora here is chiefly white and lodgepole
pine, Douglas and alpine fir, western red cedar, and Engelmann
spruce among the trees; and among the shrubs the dogwood,
syringa, snowberry, mountain laurel, thimble-, huckle-, and elder-
berry, wild rose and currant, and mountain ash. The fern which
grows in such luxuriance is the brake (bracken), and with it are
the sword and maidenhair ferns. The almost countless species of
wild flower include hellebore, violet, yellow bell, paintbrush, gerani-
um, hollyhock, lupine, pentstemon, wind flower, camas, snapdragon,
Clarkia, and lily.
LOWELL 23 m. is only a post ofRce at the junction of the Lochsa and
Selway Rivers. The Middle Fork is a broad and unhurried and
dimpled stream, but these two rivers, as much alike as twins, are
swifter in descent, and fall in cascading loveliness in their upper
reaches. The left road up the Lochsa River will, when completed,
connect with Missoula in Montana. Two improved forest camp-
grounds are available a few miles up, and others will be established.
One mile from Lowell there is a left turn from the Selway road
that leads to the COOLWATER LOOKOUT 1 m. and to two lovely
alpine lakes that are heavily stocked with trout. Up the Selway
River at 19 m. is the SELWAY WATERFALL (R), visible from
the road. Unspectacular, this descent of water is, nevertheless,
one of the loveliest in the State. Two miles fai'ther on Meadow
Creek is an improved campground. The road goes south here up
Meadow Creek and climbs to the summit and a magnificent view
and proceeds to Elk City. It crosses a wilderness of country and
streams.
The Middle Fork of the Clearwater is a study in color. In its
lower reach it may be almost black depth with white manes stream-
ing from the boulders, or it may lie broad and shallow in dappled
brown over its stones. Farther up it varies from pale green at its
edge and darkens to blue, running through every possible shade. Or
along a stretch it may give thousands of white intimations of
cascading but never do more than to stir its surface into jewels.
The highway proceeds along the South Fork to
STITES 86 m., another village in a canyon. Just N of
HARPSTER 95 m., the mountains on the left are very
TOUREIGHT 323
beautifully terraced in golden brown with narrow alter-
nating gardens of pale green.
At 97 m. is the junction with State 14.
Left on this improved road is a drive up a river that is flawless.
The canyon walls are densely wooded above an inextricable tangle
of underflora; with wild flowers in extravagant gardens mile after
mile; and with the river in springtime rolling in a torrential flood.
In June its water may look like coffee pouring down the cascades;
or over the diversion dam at 6 m. it may look like a waterfall of
liquid gold. In autumn the mountainsides are aflame with color,
and the river is as clear as a journey of melted glass. A right turn
at 17.5 m. crosses a bridge and climbs the Hungry Creek road to the
MARBLE CREEK LOOKOUT 14 m. A sensory part of this journey
comes from the sound, especially when the stream is rampant; for
in one moment it is hushed and in the next it swirls and gathers its
power to plunge. At 23 m. it loses its temper completely and cas-
cades wildly; and the lush flora yields for a short distance to blue-
black ledges of stone. Many side streams enter, and upon the mouth
of some are attractive campgrounds. These streams all come down
in spring and early summer as if they had been throw^n over preci-
pices and enraged, and the river itself churns down the miles with
uninterrupted gusto. And a sensory part of this journey is in
smell, for the fragrance of water, wild flower, and evergreen and
fern all mix into a floating bouquet that fills the canyon.
CROOKED RIVER enters at 43 m. (R) and over the hill from it
is the village of ELK CITY 46.5 m. The road proceeds from it
eastv.-ard and forks at about 56 m., the left turn leading to RED
RIVER HOT SPRINGS, where hotel and cabins are available, and
the right turn penetrating forest to connect eventually with Hamil-
ton in Montana. At the Crooked River junction the right turn goes
southward and leads in 20 m. to improved campgrounds and lovely
lakes in a virginal wilderness.
CRYSTAL LAKE is especially unusual because it is framed in a
rockbound depression and is wild of aspect. A trail leads from it
to FISH LAKE. Other lakes are the WILDHORSE, RAINBOW,
DEER, and RUBY, all accessible by road or trail, and some, like
the Wildhorse, equipped with a campground maintained by the
Forest. This is part of one of Idaho's great primitive areas, and
is in the center of the Nezperce National Forest.
No forest in Idaho holds a greater diversity of scenery and in-
terest. Elevations vai-y in parts of it several thousand feet within
a few miles, and while in some areas flowers are blooming, other
regions are buried invisibly under snow. Much of the wild game
has never been disturbed, and many streams have rarely been
fished. Of its hot springs, the Red River is becoming a popular
324 IDAHO
summer resort. Principal among its larger trees are yellow pine,
larch, lodgepole, Douglas fir, western red cedar, white and alpine
fir, and Engelmann spruce.
The highway goes westward from the junction, and
rises out of the canyon of the South Fork of the Clear-
water River for ten winding miles among white fir. These
miles in summertime are perfect, with every farm a
pastoral loveliness of green hills, forested coves, and
crests, and burgeoned fragrant meadows.
At Grange ville is the junction with U S 95 (see Tour
7, Sec. b).
TOUR NO. 9
Coeur d'Alene — St. Maries — Potlatch. U S 95 Alt. Lake
Coeur d'Alene Route.
Coeur d'Alene to Potlatch 110 m.
This is perhaps the loveliest drive for its length in Idaho.
Accommodations are less than average.
U S 95 Alt. follows the route of U S 10 for eleven miles
(see Tour 10) E of Coeur d'Alene before turning south
along the eastern shore of LAKE COEUR D'ALENE.
After crossing the bridge the highway follows the shore
line and passes BEAUTY, SQUAW, TURNER, and CAR-
LIN BAYS, the first of which is usually calmly blue when
the main body of the lake is rolling in high waves. From
Beauty, Turner, and Carlin, paths lead (L) to the summit
of Mount Coeur d'Alene, following streams or passing
through heavy evergreen growth. This summit (5,200
alt.) is the highest point in the range and offers a fine view
of the surrounding country. Branching from these trails
are other trails leading to Elk, Killarney, and Red Horse
Mountains.
For a considerable distance the highway follows close
to this body of water, which the National Geographic is
declared by legend to have called the fifth loveliest in the
world. Entirely surrounded by low wooded hills, it lies for
mile upon mile, serenely blue with pale acreages of light
falling upon it in broad fields or trembling upon it in silver
paths. The view afforded will depend on the position of the
sun for this lake is not the same at morning, noon, and eve-
ning, nor when looking away from the sun or against it.
If the wind is very gentle, the surface wears a pattern
like that of fern leaves, and if the wind is a little stronger,
then it is like a dappled blue pavement of glass. If the
wind is stronger still, the dark blue miraculously opens
into white crests as if flowering, and the tiny valleys are
ridged in bloom. There are areas where upon the blue a
326 IDAHO
deeper blue seems in shadow to have been poured or m
sunlight to lie like a veil of silk ; or it may seem as if the
depth is golden yellow above a buried sun, with lilac
mists trembling on the surface; or it may look as if
liquid light has been spilled on the water. In afternoon
there are reeflike paths that look like solid gray ice, with
the water on either side like dimpled prairies of cobalt
blue. In early morning sun, golden sheens seem not quite
to touch the surface but to lie close against it like a mist
of butterfly wings. At sunset, especially under a cloudy
sky, the wooded hills are purple or black fog and the
shadowed water is like condensed darkness ; but the water
touched as the flame of the sunset dies looks like a mead-
ow of soft white bloom. There may be lovelier lakes in
the world. Some who have seen Coeur d'Alene under
varying light in all its moods from utter deep blue
serenity to whitecapped perturbation would hke to know
where they are.
Continuing southward, U S 95 Alt. follows the shore
of the lake or cuts back over forested hills. It finally
enters a canyon, and for two miles the lake is ecHpsed,
but the mountainsides here in summertime are a con-
tinuous garden of wild flowers, with the syringa drench-
ing the air in June. Almost immediately south of the
canyon, the highway reaches the point where the Coeur
d'Alene River empties into the lake.
Left on a road up this river is a chain of ten lakes scattered within
a distance of six miles. Taken together, these offer an ideal spot
for both sportsman and vacationist who demand little in accommo-
dations, though upon four of them, to which branch roads lead,
there are cabins and campgrounds. These ten lakes are a series
of lovely mountain jewels, and those to which no road leads are
available by path or from the river by launch or rowboat. Ander-
son, Black, Cave, and Medicine Lakes are south of the river;
Thompson, Blue, Swan, Killarney, Hidden, and Rose are north.
Killarney Lake with its two small islands at the upper end is
perhaps the most picturesque of all.
On the right, north of HARRISON 39 m. (2,207
alt., 493 pop.), a ghostly hybrid of a resort and milltown.
T O U R N I N E 327
are the remains of a deserted mill ; and contrasting here
with the ugliness is the lake beyond. Mills and log booms
have done their best to deface the lake along here, and
beauty lies far out beyond the homely industry of human
hands. Harrison, terraced up a mountainside, is, sur-
prisingly enough, the center of a farming area. Pic-
turesque in its site, uncertain in its appearance, it once
flourished, too, before the mill here was abandoned to
decay. At one time it had nine mills along its water front.
Today it has none.
South of the scabbed southern extremity of Harrison
and the serene blue loveliness of Lake Coeur d'Alene, the
highway enters a rich agricultural area where river bot-
toms have been diked. These great dikes, running for
twelve miles, are so built that they form roadbeds as well
as dams to control flood waters. The soil here is ex-
tremely rich in its silted deposits. The highway itself
proceeds by wooded hill and cove to rise over a distance
of ten miles to HARRISON FLATS, a burnt-over region
now possessed by young growth, wild flowers, and a few
ranches. Vegetation is so lush that this tiny valley looks
tangled and choked by its own thrift. The highway climbs
gently out of the Flats and then makes a forested descent
which leads by way of a canyon to the meadowed valley
of the shadowy St. Joe River. The road follows the valley
for about eight miles before it crosses the river.
ST. MARIES 58 m. (2,145 alt.; 1,996 pop.), the seat
of Benewah County, is sprawled on hills and almost lost
to itself. The older part of th^ town, first entered by
train from the east or U S 95 Alt., once roared with gusto
and then decHned as the adjacent timber was largely ex-
hausted; and just west of it a new town made a fresh
start. The streets, in consequence, run without design or
reason up or around the hills which reach away to the
south. It is on the main line of the Chicago, Milwaukee,
and Puget Sound Railroad, and is an important junction
for the shipping of pine timber. St. Maries is the south-
ern terminus of both freight and passenger boats on Lake
328 IDAHO
Coeur d'Alene, with the St. Joe River, said to be the
highest navigable river in the world, connecting the lake
and the town. Westward (R) is a shallow lake which
is really the upper end of LAKE CHATCOLET, and this,
together with five miles of what is known as the COEUR
D'ALENE SLOUGH along the St. Joe River, comprises
some of the best bass-fishing and duck-hunting area in
the State. The bottoms between the St. Maries and St.
Joe Rivers cover about seventy-five thousand acres of
very rich soil, especially adapted to fruits and vegetables.
This area is smooth and green, with clusters of willows
bordering small pools that are fed by springs. The whole
scene has the appearance of a great sunken garden.
At the junction of the St. Maries and St. Joe Rivers,
U S 95 Alt. swings to the right over a bridge and then
climbs through mile after mile of beautifully wooded
country. It goes up the St. Maries River Canyon, which
steadily widens and lengthens in an unfolding blue and
green panorama of mountains, with occasional small
tablelands opening to the river. Two areas running be-
yond vision and over backbones are still stark and ugly
under the devastation of former fires. The road descends
through the canyon, crosses the St. Maries River, and
swings right to its junction with State 7 at 73 m.
Left on State 7 is CLARKIA 17 m., which is noted not so much
for itself as for its suiToundings; for it is situated in a forest of
immense trees from one to three hundred years old. Out of Clarkia,
a side trip can be taken (L) to MARBLE CREEK 12 m. upon
which is the largest single stand of matured white pine remaining
in America. It covers about 136 square miles between the creek and
the St. Joe River.
From the junction, U S 95 Alt. continues southward to
SANTA CREEK 74 m. which is indicated by a sign on
the right. Here not long ago a channel was dynamited to
change the stream, and down in the rock gorge was ex-
posed one of the most unusual deposits of carbonized trees
yet found in the State. Below, in the rock wall, are
twenty-two trees which remain just as they were dis-
Marble Creek
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T O U R N I N E 329
covered. The logs, varying in diameter from eight to
twenty-seven inches, are extinct species of oak, redwood,
beech, and bald cypress, none of which are now native to
this region. These seem to be a remnant of a Middle
Miocene forest that perhaps covered two hundred thou-
sand square miles of the Pacific Northwest before it was
buried by lava flows from a few to more than five thou-
sand feet in depth. These logs still show growth rings,
medullary rings, and the minutest of cell structure.
EMIDA 80 m., on the edge of the St. Joe National
Forest, is hardly more than a name on the map. West-
ward from it the deeper forest rolls away in massed
ranges on which the growth is broken only by canyons or
by small areas cleared by fire.
South of Emida, U S 95 Alt. passes through a logged-
off and burnt-over forest area before entering a corridor
whose high cool beauty stands in striking contrast to the
devastation left behind. The highway winds for nine
miles through this magnificent corridor of matured juni-
per and white pine, the former easily identified by its lacy
foliage and its stately shaft which often for a hundred
feet is without a limb. Other trees here are lodgepole, fir,
and spruce, with some hemlock and larch. The luxuriant
shrubbery is chiefly elder, maple, syringa, dogwood, grape,
huckleberry, heath, laurel, and hawthorn. The common-
est ferns are the brake (bracken), maidenhair, and
sword. The varieties of wild flower are almost countless :
among the loveliest are the syringa, lilies, lupine, violet,
shooting star, hollyhock, fireweed, queencup, and monkey
flower.
The beautiful ST. JOE NATIONAL FOREST is one of
the smallest in the State, with an area of only a little more
than a million acres. In 1910 it was severely gutted by fire,
and some large stands of mature white pine were de-
stroyed. Much of the forest, therefore, is of young
growth, though large bodies of pine still stand in the
center of it and it is chiefly in this region that deer and
bear are plentiful, with mountain goat in the Sawtooth
330 IDAHO
Peaks. Much of the interior of this forest is very rugged,
and inasmuch as it has few roads, fishing is excellent for
those willing to go by trail.
A few miles S of the edge of the forest, U S 95 Alt.
enters HARVARD 98 m. and leaves it to cross a valley
and enter an area of scattered rolling farms.
POTLATCH 108 m. is typical of small towns which,
almost entirely supported by a single industry, thrive
with it and then move into the realm of ghost towns when
the industry has exhausted its resources. This town has
steadily declined, like so many others in the State, but
recently has shown signs of renewed activity.
South of Potlatch, U S 95 Alt. runs past a game preserve
and passes the Potlatch lumber mill, formerly said to have
been the largest in the world but now less active.
At 110 m. is its junction with U S 95 (see Tour 7,
Sec. a).
I
TOUR NO. 10
(Missoula, Montana) — Wallace — Kellogg — Coeur d'Alene
— (Spokane, Washington) . U S 10. Mullan Road Route.
Montana Line to Washington Line, 82 m.
The Union Pacific Raiboad parallels this route between
Mullan and Cataldo, and the Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, and
Palouse between Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls. The Inter-
mountain Transport Co. buses follow the highway. Usual
accommodations.
U S 10 is the chief artery of travel across northern Idaho
into the Northwest. Formerly known as the Yellowstone
Trail, it follows the Mullan military road that was built
by Captain John Mullan in 1861 between Fort Benton in
Montana and Walla Walla upon the Columbia River in
Washington.
U S 10 crosses the Montana-Idaho Line over Lookout
Pass (4,738 alt.). Ill m. west of MISSOULA, from
which is afforded a view of a large part of two National
Forests, the St. Joe on the left and the Coeur d'Alene on
the right, as well as a part of the Coeur d'Alene Moun-
tains, whose flanks late in every summer are blue with
ripe huckleberries. The chief trees are Douglas fir, white
and yellow pine, larch, cedar, western hemlock, Engel-
mann spruce, and lodgepole. The principal shrubs are
dogwood, huckleberry, thimble-, snow-, service-, and elder-
berry, ocean spray and mountain ash, Oregon grape, alder,
and wild cherry. This descent for six miles to the Coeur
d'Alene River (South Fork) is beautiful save for the
scars which remain from one of the worst forest fires in
history. This epic of devastation wrote its record in a
flood of flame that lighted the sky for a hundred miles
and in mountains of smoke that obscured the sun over a
huge area — as well as in thousands of acres of charred
trunks and blackened landscape. But even so, these first
332 IDAHO
miles offer little foretaste of what is to be found in the
Coeur d'Alene mining district. At the foot of the descent
is a lovely lucid river, but a half mile farther a group of
scalded red buildings suggest the area ahead.
MULLAN 6 m. (3,245 alt.; 1,891 pop.) is not, as
mining towns go, wholly without its prepossessing aspect.
Founded in 1884 between two silver-lead mines, and
shaken since by strike after strike, it has managed to
evade in some degree the complete and pitiless homeliness
that usually falls like a blight on towns in such regions.
The MORNING MINE, still operating here, is the third
largest lead producer in the United States and sustains
most of the population of the town. Its developed area
reaches for almost thirty-eight miles. On the right is a
monument to Captain Mullan. On the right, too, as the
highway leaves the W end of town, is the river, but it is not
the lucid stream of a mile ago. It has been diverted to the
mines here, impregnated with poison, and turned free.
It now looks like a river of lye. Or, better, it looks as if
all the dirty clothes in the world had just been washed
in it.
WALLACE 13 m. (2,728 alt.; 3,634 pop.), standing in
a triangular valley in which many streams enter the
main fork of the Coeur d'Alene River, is the seat of Sho-
shone County and the distributing center of this large
mining and lumbering area. The great fire of 1910 partly
destroyed this town, since rebuilt and quite picturesque,
with its better homes terraced on the mountainside, row
on row. In its lovely little park at the western end is an-
other monument to Mullan. Perhaps the most notable thing
about Wallace is its stores, which, at least in regard to
food, cater to the most exacting of epicures and offer a
greater variety of exotic delicacies than most cities a
hundred times its size.
1. Right from Wallace on a paved road is BURKE 6 m. (3,741 alt.;
500 pop.). Its only street is a narrow gulch occupied by a railway
and lined with stores and shacks. This town seems to have been re-
sourceful: finding itself cabined, it has spawned down the canyon
T O U R T E N 333
clear to Wallace a flock of imitations, some of which almost excel the
parent in scabbed aspect. GEM, however, midway between the two
towns, is a ghost, having been founded in 1886 and having had a
saloon in every building of any consequence. Burke still thrives.
The Hecla Mining Company has its million-dollar plant here, said to
be very modern and complete. This mine is fifth among the lead
producers.
2. Right from Wallace on an unimproved road is the COEUR
D'ALENE NATIONAL FOREST. The road follows Ninemile Creek
for 3.5 m., then crosses Dobson Pass (4,179 alt.), and then turns over
elbows for 2 m., follows Dudley Creek for 1 m., Two Mile Creek for
nearly 4 m., and rejoins U S 10 at Osburn. This loop circles Dago
Peak.
A longer journey continues through Unknown Gulch (R), Pony
Gulch (R), Alder Creek (L), White Creek (L), and Cleveland Gulch
(R) and along Beaver Creek to DELTA 3 m. Turning right at
Delta, the road now follows Trail Creek and goes over Kings Pass
to MURRAY 8 m. on Prichard Creek, the center of rich gold
placers. Close by is the ghost of EAGLE CITY (see Ghost Towns).
As a matter of fact, ghost towns and deserted camps are now to be
seen in nearly every dii-ection. For 26 m. now the road winds through
a forest of white pine, crossing dozens of streams, and returning to
U S 10 just east of Cataldo.
At 14 m. is the SUNSHINE MINE (L), the largest
silver producer in the United States. High above in the St.
Joe Mountains is STRIPED PEAK (6,388 alt.) .
KELLOGG 25 m. (2,305 alt. ; 4,124 pop.) is a famous
mining spot, with the Bunker Hill and Sullivan, the
largest lead mine in the United States, located here. Below
it the river bottoms look like a caricature of a graveyard,
and above it the denuded mountains declare the potency of
lead. The Sullivan Mine here has a development of sixty-
four and a half miles and (with 560 men) the largest
payroll of any mine in the State.
Left on a fair road from Kellogg is WARDNER 4 m. (2,960 alt.;
903 pop.), another mining town. It is the location of the famous
stockade referred to locally as the Bull Pen, in which a thousand
men were kept under heavy guard after the strike in Kellogg in
1899. In this feud many lives were lost, including that of Idaho's
governor, Frank Steunenberg; and following the destruction of
property, martial law was maintained for more than a year. During
this period of stinfe, several hundred miners seized a car of ex-
plosives and blew up the mill. Those placed in the stockade were
forced to repudiate the union before they were allowed to return
to work.
334 IDAHO
West of Kellogg with its miracles of machinery,
there is still to be seen a poisoned and dead or dying land-
scape. Trees slain by the invisible giant still stand with
lifeless limbs and with roots still sucking the poisoned
earth. But gradually the blight thins, the flora looks up
to new strength, and the drive becomes increasingly lovely.
CATALDO 35 m. (2,143 alt. ; 110 pop.) is of note only
because it was near it that the famous Cataldo mission
was built in 1848 by Father Ravalli, chiefly with the aid
of unskilled Indians. The mission was abandoned in 1887.
It rapidly fell into ruins and was largely forgotten until
the citizens of Wallace, Kellogg, Coeur d'Alene, and Spo-
kane in 1930 restored it and set it apart as a historical
monument. The chapel is interesting not only because of
its age and former associations but also because of its
structure. After stones and logs were brought on trucks
drawn by Indians, wooden pegs were used for nails, and
mud from the river was spread over the walls. Inside
there were three altars and a baptismal font. Of the
paintings on the walls done with Indian dyes, two still
hang, the one a representation of heaven, the other of
hell. The restored mission is visible on a hill (L) just
west of Cataldo.
U S 10 is now in Kootenai County in which lumber-
ing and mining are diversified with farming and dairying.
Leaving Coeur d'Alene River on the left, the road skirts
Mission Flats and at the confluence of Fern and Mission
Creeks enters the beautiful and historic FOURTH OF
JULY CANYON. It was here on July 4, 1861, that Captain
Mullan and his men were encamped while building the Mul-
lan Road. They raised an American flag to the top of the
tallest white pine, and from this circumstance the canyon
has taken its name. The highway now climbs for a thou-
sand feet to the summit.
Right from the summit on a dirt road is the MULLAN TREE .1 m.
Standing in the center of a fifty-acre park, this tree still bears the
date, 1861, and the initials M. R. (Mullan Road).
~^' " " »ifi
n:J:l^
V ) ;
\^
'■f^f^x\%.
The Mullan Tree
T O U R T E N 335
At 50 m. is the FOURTH OF JULY SUMMIT (3,290
alt.) , marked by a tunnel 394 feet in length.
Right from here a side trip much in favor goes to COPPER MOUN-
TAIN 5 m., which is a lookout station.
West of the summit, U S 10 enters Wolf Lodge Val-
ley, descending over seven miles of broad fast highway.
At 55 m. is the junction with a road which runs into the
Coeur d'Alene Forest.
Right on this road is the RUTHERFORD RANCH 2 m., the home
of a once well known trapper and hunter who from this point used
to run his numerous trap lines for bear, beaver, marten, and lynx.
Beyond the ranch the road follows Wolf Lodge Creek and then,
turning right, follows Searchlight Creek up a narrow canyon
through beautifully wooded area with countless mountain streams.
From the HONEYSUCKLE RANGER STATION 10 m. the road
climbs more sharply to LIEBERG 15.5 m., where there are im-
proved campgrounds. The right road here follows Lieberg Creek
to its source, crosses the divide, and drops down to Tepee Creek,
the peer of all fishing streams in this area. The seventeen miles
between Lieberg and the McGEE RANGER STATION 32.5 m. are
intersected by twenty-one streams. From McGee, hiking and pack
trips are available, including Grizzly Ridge, McDonald Peak, Grassy
Mountain, Lookout Peak, McGee Peak, Elkhorn Peak, and Cathe-
dral Buttes. These are all in the heart of the Coeur d'Alene Na-
tional Forest.
At the W end of Wolf Lodge Valley and E of Lake Coeur
d'Alene, U S 10 passes a solitary surviving monarch of the
white pine forest that formerly stood here. This tree is
216 feet in height and 8 feet in diameter at the bole.
At 57 m. is the junction with U S 95 Alt. (see Tour
9). To the left is the eastern extremity of Lake Coeur
d'Alene, with a long wooden bridge spanning Wolf Lodge
Bay. To the left also is Beauty Bay, to the right of it is
Blue Creek Bay, and these with the Wolf Lodge Bay form
a three-leaf clover design. The highway now climbs for
some distance and overlooks the lake, only to drop down a
canyon and climb again for two miles to a deep forest;
and drop again to follow the lake into Coeur d'Alene.
At 67 m. is the junction with a road.
Right on this road is FERNAN LAKE .5 m., which is navigable for
small fishing crafts and is an excellent resort for bass and perch
33G IDAHO
fishermen. In wintertime there are ice skating and hockey here,
with the Coeur d'Alene Eskimo Hockey Club sponsoring carnivals
in which all the more popular winter sports are featured.
COEUR D'ALENE 68 m. is at the junction with U S 95
(see Tour 7, Sec. a).
U S 10 goes W out of Coeur d'Alene at the N W corner
and after a little follows the Spokane River through forests
of jack pine. At 75 m. is the junction with a surfaced
road that goes (R) into one of Idaho's richest wheat
belts and from there to some of its loveliest lakes (see
Tour 7, Sec. a).
At 76 m. is the plant of the OHIO MATCH COMPANY
(L), one of the industrial giants of the Northwest.
Equipped with the most modern of machinery, this plant
cuts the finest of straight-grained white pine into match
blocks and ships these to Spokane. The working conditions
in this factory are said to be very good.
POST FALLS 77 m. (2,147 alt. ; 509 pop.) is a small
lumbering and fruit-packing town on the Spokane River.
A half mile south of it (L) is the Post Falls Dam, which
impounds the river and delivers power to the eastern part
of the Inland Empire.
At 78 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Right on this road is HAUSER LAKE 7 m., a beautiful jewel in
a deep forest of evergreens. Inasmuch as it is close to both Spokane
and Coeur d'Alene, this lake is a favorite resort in northern Idaho,
Fishing in the lake is fair; and large flocks of wild ducks, making
their summer home here, remain late enough in the fall to be
caught by the hunting season.
At 82 m. U S 10 crosses the Idaho-Washington Line
over the Spokane Bridge 18 m. E of Spokane, (see Wash-
ington Tour 1).
TOUR NO. 11
(Missoula, Montana) — Clark Fork — Sandpoint — Priest
River — (Spokane, Washington). State 3 and U S 195.
Montana Line to Washington Line, 62 m.
The Northern Pacific Railroad parallels this route between
Cabinet and Sandpoint, and the Great Northern between
Sandpoint and Newport. The Deering buses follow the
highway between Priest River and the Washington Line.
Accommodations less than average except in Sandpoint.
This, the northernmost artery across the Panhandle, is a
river-and-valley route.
State 3 enters the State over the Bitterroot Range
at a relatively low point (2,400 alt. ; 173 m. N W of Mis-
soula, Montana)— at a point where the mighty CLARK
FORK RIVER has eroded its gorge. This is one of the wild-
est and most picturesque streams in the West. Having
found itself imprisoned by mountains after the retreat of
the glaciers, it has done some amazing sculpturing in cut-
ting a path to the sea, and often, because of the invincible
toughness of its walls and beds, has to turn up on its edge
to pour through chasms; and sometimes its canyons are
so narrow that they can be spanned by logs. It has many
waterfalls and boxed gorges; and in the last fifty miles
of its journey its haste is so wild that it cascades almost
continuously. Its entrance into Idaho is marked by the
Cabinet Gorge with its sheer narrow walls ; and through
here in time of spring floods the river is so white and
thunderous in its journey that persons travel for many
miles to see and hear it. The water goes through here
with such force that logs, caught in the boiling violence,
are sometimes broken into kindling; or they may be
sucked under and held for many minutes before they
are released and hurled back to the surface. It seems
probable that the river is to be tamed by a dam and a
338 IDAHO
reservoir. On the left at 1.5 m. is a sign which indicates
the village of CABINET across the river, accessible from
here only by a suspension footbridge.
The Cabinet Gorge can be seen by crossing this bridge and proceeding
a half mile up the river on the far side to the gorge, or by driving up
the south side of the river from Clark Fork.
State 3 proceeds down a beautifully wooded drive to
cross Mosquito Creek and enter Clark Fork.
CLARK FORK 8 m. (2,081 alt. ; 432 pop.) is chiefly the
home of the Whitedelf Mine, a lead and silver producer.
1. Right from Clark Fork an unimproved road goes up Lightning
Creek. Five miles out a trail leads (L) to Bee Top Mountain. At
RATTLE CREEK 18 m. is an improved campground. The road goes
past Porcupine, Mad, Sheep, Fall, Deer, and other creeks to LAKE
DARLING 25 m. This lake is in the heart of the PEND D'OREILLE
NATIONAL FOREST, an area of 874,000 acres of which nearly a
fourth is privately owned. Mt. Pend d'Oreille (6,785 alt.) is just north
of the lake. The trees in this area are chiefly yellow pine (with the
long needles hanging in pale green bouquets), cedar (with its lacy
luxuriance of foliage), Douglas fir, larch, hemlock, and white fir.
2. Left from Clark Fork on a dirt road is the site of the old THOMP-
SON TRADING POST 10 m. David Thompson and his men, repre-
senting the Hudson's Bay Fur Trading Company, arrived at Pend
d'Oreille Lake on the eighth of September, 1809, and while searching
for a canoe route to the Columbia River, they made, five days after
their arrival, the first recorded business transaction in Idaho, with
the Pend d'Oreille Indians, by trading for about one hundred and
twenty-five furs. They had come into Idaho from Canada by way of
the Kootenai River, crossed a pass in the Cabinet Mountains, and
traveled down the Pack River to the lake. They built their trading
post, the KuUyspell House, two miles from the mouth of the main
channel of the Clark Fork River and one-half mile from the
Memaloose Island because of the proximity of this point to all other
points on the lake by canoe. They built two houses of logs, one for
the trading of goods and furs, and the other for the men to use,
and named their post KuUyspell House, probably a different spelling
for Kalispel, the native name of the Pend d'Oreille Indians. The
following year David Thompson moved the post to the Spokane
House near the present site of Spokane, Washington.
One authority says that the KuUyspell House was located on the
shore of the lake near the present town of Hope, that it was
abandoned two years later, and that it was destroyed by a forest
fire about 1834, leaving two stone chimneys which stood for twenty
years longer. In 1923 the exact site was located through the
TOURELEVEN 339
memory of a blind eighty-year-old Indian, Klai-too, who had seen
the chimneys when a small boy. Following his instructions, two
piles of even-sized rocks were discovered overgrown with brush
and vines. In one of them searchers uncovered a regular cavity
resembling a fireplace, and in it traces of ashes. The citizens of
Bonner County erected a monument over the site in 1929, com-
memorating not only the first house ever erected in the State of
Idaho, but also its builder, David Thompson.
At 10 m. LAKE PEND D'OREILLE comes into view
and the highway now follows it almost to Sandpoint. This,
the largest of Idaho lakes, with a shore line of 125 miles
and an extreme depth of 1,800 feet, sometimes rolls in
waves thirty feet high but usually is quite serene and is
rapidly coming into favor as a playground area. The
Clark Fork River flows into it and out of it. To the left
of the highway on the left side of the lake are four
islands, the Warren, Cottage, Pearl, and Memaloose,
which were used by the Pend d'Oreille Indians as a ceme-
tery. These Indians instead of burying their dead sus-
pended them from trees.
HOPE 17 m. (2,078 alt.; Ill pop.) is a village along
the lake shore, and the home of a small mine. On the left
is a monument to David Thompson, and just below it on
the shore is the David Thompson Park. At 19 m. can be
seen the peaks of the SEVEN SISTERS in the west ; and at
20 m. is TRESTLE CREEK, a popular area for camping,
huckleberrying, and fishing. The flowering bushes along
this drive in midsummer are chiefly syringa and elder-
berry.
At 26 m. is the junction with an unimproved road.
Right on this road are junctions with several other roads, each of
which leads to its own attractions. Pack River itself rises at Harrison
Lake and winds for thirty miles before emptying into Lake Pend
d'Oreille. A fair motor road, following the river most of the way and
intersecting more than forty tributaries, leads into densely wooded
regions, but WALSH LAKE 13 m. is the chief objective, with return
to Sandpoint easy over U S 95. Or the river road may be followed
to its end from which trails proceed to Chimney Rock or Harrison
Lake or to the Roman Nose Lookout (7,264 alt.), all of them within
hiking distance.
340 IDAHO
CULVER 28 m. is at the junction with an unimproved
road.
Right on this road are LIGHTNING CREEK 10 m. and a notable
stand of virgin white pine.
BOYER 29 m. is at the junction with an unimproved
road.
Right on this road is the heaviest growth of western yellow pine to
be found in the Pend d'Oreille National Forest.
SANDPOINT 34 m. (2,086 alt.; 3,290 pop.) is the
seat of Bonner County and the junction with U S 95
(seeTour 7, Secb).
State 3 now becomes U S 195 and westward from
Sandpoint parallels the Clark Fork, lying between hills
that are covered with pine, hemlock, cedar, and fir. The
river here is deep and wide and is navigable for small
boats from Lake Pend d'Oreille to Albini Falls west of
Priest River. The highway passes through DOVER 37 m.,
a ghost town with a smokeless factory and rows of iden-
tical empty shacks ; through WRENCO 43 m., from which
is visible JOHNNY LONG MOUNTAIN on the right ; and
LACLEDE 48 m., another ghost that was once a pros-
perous mill town. At Laclede the highway leaves the
W end of the Pend d'Oreille Forest and approaches the
Kaniksu and the most popular playground in the northern
part of the State.
PRIEST RIVER 56 m. (2,080 alt. ; 949 pop.) at the
junction of the Pend d'Oreille and Priest Rivers is the gate-
way of the Priest Lake country. This town has an Italian
colony, noted for its weedless gardens; a sawmill which
specializes in white pine lumber of exceptional quality for
interior woodwork, and a tourist traffic that is rapidly
increasing.
1. Right on an improved road is COOLIN 20 m. at the southern end of
PRIEST LAKE, and NORDMAN 38 m. at the western side of the
lake. This body of water, regarded by some Idahoans as the loveliest
lake in the State, lies upon the eastern boundary of the Kaniksu
National Forest. It is about twenty-four miles long and from one to
ft •*-•
\ ^
Priest River country
<^ .«L^^
«td
. mi
'•-Ha- "^*'' '
J — -
TOURELEVEN 341
fourteen miles in width and is a perfect huge sapphire against a for-
ested backdrop that is almost as dense as an evergreen area can be.
The forest is, in fact, almost a phenomenon in itself, and only the
more adventurous go far into it without a guide. Lying half in Wash-
ington and half in Idaho, it covers 444,593 acres, and lifts its great
shoulders under the southern spurs that reach down the Selkirk
Mountains of Canada. Besides its larger flora of pine and fir and
spruce, it has a luxuriant undergrowth that is often impenetrable,
with fern and shrub and wild flower matting the earth and lifting
tropical gardens shoulder-high. Nearly any part of it will meet the
most exacting tastes of those seeking wild beautiful retreats; and
most of it offers fine hunting and fishing. Besides Priest Lake, in
which fishing is always good, there are smaller lakes and countless
streams, some of which are rarely fished at all; and the wooded
regions have thousands of deer, bear, elk, and goats. Both native and
blue grouse are abundant.
The right-hand road from Priest River (often called the Coolin
Road) is bordered on both sides by large evergreens of such ma-
turity that they give the appearance of a tunnel through the forest.
At 16 m. the PRIEST RIVER EXPERIMENT STATION (R)
.5 m. is interesting for its variety of research related to the wel-
fare of the National Forests. From here a drive of six miles leads
easily to the LOOKING GLASS LOOKOUT, where a forty-foot tower
aflPords an excellent view. Right on this branch road 1 m. up the East
River are campsites and excellent eastern brook trout fishing.
COOLIN 25 m. is a small resort town on the southern extremity of
the lake. Accommodations are available here; and at the PAUL
JONES BEACH 25.5 m. north and the SHERWOOD BEACH 27 m.
north there are boats and cabins. At 27.5 m. a right turn leads up
SOLDIER CREEK, in which there is excellent native trout fishing.
But the most exciting trips from Coolin are by both water and land.
One of them is a boat trip from Coolin to INDIAN BAY 10 m., and
then by trail up INDIAN CREEK to its fork 3 m. and from there 6 m.
up the south fork to the end of the trail. To reach CHIMNEY ROCK
it is necessary to cross the creek and make a stiff climb for a half
mile eastward. Chimney Rock, rising about 200 feet, is triangular
in shape and was formed by three glaciers that backed in toward
the divide. A goat trail leads along the north side of the chimney
to a narrow escarpment extending about a half mile eastward.
Goats are often seen in this vicinity. The rock itself can not be
scaled without elaborate mechanical apparatus. HARRISON LAKE
5 m., north as the crow flies, can be reached from here. This, a
beautiful glacial cirque of deepest blue, framed in a rock-bound
setting, is by far the loveliest of all the numerous high lakes along
the Selkirk Divide.
2. The v,7est side of Priest Lake can be reached by the west branch
road by way of Nordman or by a crossroad south of Coolin. From
the town of Priest River a right turn at 28 m. leads (R) to PRIEST
LAKE .5 m.; to LUBY BAY at 31 m. (1 m. R) ; and to KALI-
342 IDAHO
SPELL BAY at 34 m. (1 m. R). To reach points farther up the lake
it is necessary to travel by boat or trail. Boats, motors, cabins,
and other accommodations are available at Coolin, Outlet, Luby
Bay, Kalispell Bay, and on the mouth of Granite Creek at the head
of the lake. At Luby and Reeder bays are improved forest camp-
grounds. The drive between Outlet and Kalispell by way of Luby
Bay is quite as beautiful as any drive could be. In addition there is
a variety of side trips into the forest, both by road and trail; and
one of the easiest of the latter turns off the west branch road just
south of its junction with the Luby Bay road and proceeds for three
miles to an eighty-foot steel lookout tower that gives a magnificent
view of the lake and its background. The Granite Creek road
penetrates deep into the forest. Four miles from Nordman a right
turn leads to the river, upon which is a modern fish trap, recently
completed, and popular with visitors when the fish are being
impounded and stripped.
U S 195 crosses the Washington Line at 62 m., 49 m.
NE of Spokane, Washington (see Washington Tour 6,
Sec. a).
II
THE PRIMITIVE AREA
4
II
THE PRIMITIVE AREA
THE Primitive Area, almost in the geographic cen-
ter of Idaho, is a compact but slightly elongated
unit of 1,087,744 acres. It is bounded on the north by the
main Salmon River, on the east by the Bighorn Crags,
Yellowjacket Range, and Sleeping Deer Mountain, on the
south by a line just south of and paralleHng the Middle
Fork of the Salmon River to Rapid Creek, and on the west
by a divide that is the western limit of the watersheds
of Marble, Monumental, Beaver, and Chamberlain Creeks.
It is a wilderness of mountains and streams with a few
upland meadows, a handful of ranches, a little grazing,
and a few mines. All but a few thousand acres of it lies
within four of Idaho's National Forests.
Its topography is extremely varied. It ranges from
high rolling plateaus and ridges as found in the Cham-
berlain Basin, Cold Meadows, and Thunder Mountain re-
gions to precipitous bluffs and deep gorges upon the
rivers. Mt. McGuire, its highest point, with an elevation
above ten thousand feet, is on the east side at the head of
Roaring Creek. Many other peaks, accessible by trail to
their summits, have altitudes above nine thousand feet,
and of these, Cottonwood Peak in the northwest probably
overlooks more territory than any other. Its climate is
also extremely varied, and a few hours of travel in July
can easily range through forty-five degrees of tempera-
ture. There is, strangely enough, little snowfall upon
the main Salmon and its Middle Fork, but upon parts of
346 IDAHO
the area the snow is piled many feet in depth. More than
90 per cent of this huge playground is forested. The
commonest trees are lodgepole pine and Douglas fir, both
of which occur in dense stands at higher elevations, to-
gether with some Engelmann spruce and limber pine. At
lower altitudes are forests of matured western yellow
pine, especially upon Big Creek and the Middle Fork of
Salmon River. Difficulties in building either highway or
railway lines place nearly all of this timber indefinitely
beyond commercial reach. The underflora is typically the
subalpine varieties found in this latitude, and the wild
flowers are unusually lovely and numerous.
There are about fifty lakes in the Area, varying in
size from ten to a hundred acres. Located for the most
part at the heads of streams, these are fed by melting
snows, and the water in any of them is clear and cold in
all seasons. Most of their shore line is timbered. From
a historic point of view the most interesting lake in the
region is that called Roosevelt on Monumental Creek.
The small mining town of Roosevelt just above Mule
Creek awoke one day to the realization of a landslide and
found itself buried under nearly thirty feet of water
before the next sunrise. The mountain of earth that
came down here covered two miles of distance in a few
hours but at no time moved with haste, and gave the
settlers time to flee with everything but their pianos.
Hundreds of small streams head in the higher country
and pour in cascading frenzy to the rivers far below.
There are many hot springs, most of which are mineral-
ized and most invigorating to tenderfeet after they have
spent a few hours in the saddle. Of the several meadows
that are ideal natural campsites, the most popular are
Crescent, Cold, Moose, Hand, Chamberlain, and the Mea-
dow of Doubt. Adjacent to these and to countless others
are cold pure water, forage for beasts, and an abundance
of wood. Inasmuch as this is a primitive area, it is not
planned to equip these sites with stoves and air condi-
tioners and bathtubs.
THE PRIMITIVE AREA 347
There are no unusual natural phenomena. The Big-
horn Crags on the eastern border are distinguished by
being set upon a high divide, and rise perpendicularly
from it for hundreds of feet to resemble huge monu-
ments. Southwest of these is Rainbow Mountain, named
for its colored mists and formations, and especially beau-
tiful under sunrise. There are a number of caves along
Big and Camas Creeks and upon the Middle Fork. Used
formerly by Indians, their walls are often covered with
paintings and pictographs and innumerable hieroglyphics.
A group of caves in the upper end of the boxed canyon on
Big Creek suggest that they were used as a stronghold in
years past. The gorges of the main Salmon, the northern
boundary, and of the Middle Fork are two of the deepest
in North America. The Middle Fork stream itself is
utterly impassable to any manner of travel now known.
The Area has not been and will not be improved save
as may be necessary for protection against fire. There
are no roads. There are about two hundred miles of trail,
and other trails are being constructed, and a few more
bridges will be laid across the streams. "The construc-
tion of roads, trails, or other improvements will not be
allowed to mar the landscape or interfere with its primi-
tive characteristics." Campgrounds will not be improved.
Signs have been and will continue to be placed until even
the most terrified dude will be able to retrace his path and
find his way back to his automobile.
This is the largest and the most unvisited of all
Idaho's huge game preserves. The chief big game animal
is the deer, of which the Area contains more than thirteen
thousand. Most of these are Rocky Mountain mule deer,
although some white-tailed deer have entered the region
from the north. The annual increase of deer is estimated
at 3,250 head, but they suffer a loss, perhaps not to ex-
ceed 10 per cent, from predatory animals. There are
probably five hundred elk, chiefly upon the Chamberlain
and Disappointment Creek watersheds. Sometimes herds
of thirty or more are seen on Cold and Cottonwood Mea-
348 IDAHO
dows, but during the open season this beast ranges far
back and is not often taken by the hunter. There are a
few moose, but for the most part this country is too rough
for them. Of bear there may be a thousand, and these,
like the deer, are quite evenly distributed over the whole
area. Now and then a grizzly is killed and possibly there
is still quite a number of grizzlies in the more inaccessible
reaches. Of mountain goat and mountain sheep there are
about a thousand head. The goats roam the bluffs of the
larger streams and remain high up until midwinter. The
sheep inhabit lower and flatter areas. Of predatory ani-
mals the cougar is the greatest menace, and doubtless
these huge cowardly cats slay more deer, sheep, and goat
in a season than all the other predatory animals com-
bined. A few timber wolves may exist. Coyotes are
common. The red and gray fox are to be seen, the lynx
rarely at high altitudes, but the bobcat is abundant in
the rougher sections. There are also marten, mink, otter,
badger, wolverine, porcupine, and beaver.
This Area is an interesting bird refuge because there
is a mingling of northern Rocky Mountain and Coast
species. Blue grouse are plentiful in the more isolated
parts and especially in the Rush Creek country ; and ruf-
fled grouse are common along the streams. Franklin
grouse (known also as fool hens) are found chiefly in the
extensive lodgepole pine areas. There are a great many
golden eagles, now believed to be destructive of young
game, and a not inconsiderable number of bald eagles and
ospreys. Of smaller birds a great many species are found
in large numbers. Geese and ducks occur as migrants.
No part of Idaho is more prolific in fish, and it can be
declared without exaggeration that every stream of
fishing size is well stocked, and some have never been
fished. There are great runs in winter and early spring
of steelhead trout, some of which weigh fifteen pounds.
Dolly Varden or bull trout are widely distributed, and so
are the white fish known as mountain herring. The only
salmon occurring in these waters is the Chinook, and
Middle Fork of Salmon River
'*/■'- „. ''•'
\f*
'^jeH-'
• i^ - ^ > i >-iiHi^'
-*^.' :>^'
^.-.^-^ 4
^f-'J'fe
. ^J ^.^^
-w^p*
A Monument on Monumental Creek
THE PRIMITIVE AREA 349
these, coming from the Pacific Ocean, are abundant in
early fall. There are also native and rainbow trout, the
former of which, often called black-spotted or cutthroat,
is the commonest of all. Two excellent fishing streams are
Big Creek and the Middle Fork, with a road up the
former and a mountain trail going down the latter to
Mormon Ranch. Fish Lake, Flossie Lake, and Roosevelt
Lake are well stocked.
The chief use made of this Area is by hunters, with
fishing as a casual pastime of their journey. The whole
region is open to hunting except two hundred and fifty
thousand acres upon the Middle Fork State Game Pre-
serve. Because the hunter has to penetrate a considerable
distance, pack trips are necessary, and horses and equip-
ment and guides for these are available at all points of
entrance. For persons wishing to pack in during the sum-
mer months when hunting is forbidden, arrangements
can be made at a great many places upon all but the
northern border; or foot journeys can be provided with
guides for those who wish to penetrate any of the hun-
dreds of places that can be reached only by foot travel.
Some who could afford it have flown in to land on the
meadowed fields, particularly in the Chamberlain Basin,
but sportsmen are in general opposed to the flight of
aircraft over this Area. "If auto travel is not to be con-
doned, surely entrance by air should also be discouraged."
Though the Area is accessible on all sides, the northern
entrance is extremely difficult and is only for those who
are willing to proceed afoot for a considerable distance.
This entrance is by boat down the Salmon River from
Salmon City (see Tour 5) and strongly appeals to sports-
men who like a somewhat hazardous journey down the
magniflcent gorge. Return by boat up the river is out of
the question; but adventurers choosing this approach to
the region can climb out of the canyon and be met at
appointed places by pack strings ; or if they prefer to ape
the hardy frontiersmen they can take their way over the
great mountains afoot and with provisions on their back
350 IDAHO
and emerge at some automobile terminal south or west.
Or they can return to the river and proceed by boat to
Riggins or Lewiston.
The eastern entrance is by way of Salmon City over
the Yellowjacket road, or over the Morgan Creek road
between Ellis and Challis, both of which lead to Yellow-
jacket or Meyers Cove, favorite jumping-off points into
the Area (see Tour 5). The southern entrance is by way
of Stanley (see Tour 5) or out of Boise by way of Low-
man (see Tour 3, Section b). The western entrance is by
way of Cascade into Bear Valley (see Tour 6), or by way
of McCall and Burgdorf to Edwardsburg (see Tour 6).
For a typical pack trip hunting expedition into the Area,
see the next chapter.
Ill
A TRIP INTO THE AREA
STATE OF IDAHO
MAP OF
RECR EATION
SYMBOLS
^ boating fishing^<
^•""hunting camping ^
.^. hot springs golf ^ |
I
WINTER SPORTS
^
DUDE 'T^y^ RANCH
legend
^||^j= federal highways
/^%= state highways
==paved-gravel highways
=#= county seat
=o=^0ther highway towns
state boundary lines
^^ -county boundary lines
park boundary lines
•~u5!j# rivers -creeks
-^' v?' MOUNTAINS
COUNTY SEAT- county
SCALE IN MILES
I
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TO BOZEMANrJigiJi
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NEVADA
Ill
A TRIP INTO THE AREA
T
HE PRIMITIVE AREA is entered within season
(July-November) by pack strings which are out-
fitted from many points on the eastern and southern
boundaries (see Tour 5, Sec. a), or from many points on
the western boundary (see Tour 6, side tour from Mc-
Call). Ordinarily, persons desiring to enter the area
drive by automobile to such outfitting spots as Forney,
Meyers Cove, Cape Horn, Landmark, or Stibnite, and
then pack in ; but some prefer to fly to a dude ranch close
by the Area, inasmuch as from these ranches, especially
on the Middle Fork of Salmon River, the journey by pack
string is much shorter. Most of the expeditions into the
Area are in the fall when the season is open on big game.
Some persons, however, seeking primitive wilderness,
enter during July or August, when both flora and streams
are at their loveliest, and the weather is less severe. This
chapter will attempt to suggest, rather than to give in
explicit detail, an autumn journey by air and by pack
string after big game.
Of points of departure by air, McCall (see Tour 6) is
perhaps the best. Adventurous persons, desiring the
fullest measure of beauty, like to leave Boise two hours
before daylight and learn what an undertaking in magic
the coming of morning can be upon Payette River and
the mountains that stand like enormous shoulders on
either side. There are only valleys of darkness at first,
with the highway looped from summit to summit, and
354 IDAHO
with ravines looking like black sunken reefs from the
Craters of the Moon. When day breaks, the peaks emerge
into golden light, and the world melts into the soft glory
of morning dusk. The black water of the river becomes
luminous flowing shadow ; the night withdraws under pale
veils of light ; and the leaves of barberry and maple make
gardens of flame upon the mountainous backdrops.
The take-off from McCall is no less appropriate. Be-
low is the deep blue serenity of Payette Lake, and on all
sides is the delicate lucid green of its streams. Mountains
adjacent look like mounds of chalk, or like slabs of granite
adorned with golden furze and tiny subalpine mirrors.
Ranges now swim into vision, with backbones serrated in
row on row, with forested depressions and altitudes
stretching to the farthest reach. The enormous landscape
eastward is not only a wilderness of peaks and canyons
and streams. It is also a wilderness of legend, of doings
both fabulous and real, with the truth of them deferring
to drama and getting lost in the telling. The few mining
towns here, each lonely and isolated in the vast sweep
below, have strange histories that most likely will never
be told. There is Warren, looking from the air like an in-
credible carpet of magic : a hundred unchronicled volumes
sleep there, each of them as perfect in its fact and fable
as the tale of China Sam. For many decades, this gentle
and whimsical Chinese gentleman was custodian of the
town's property and morals, and came to be known, in-
deed, as the Mayor of Warren and the most honest man in
Idaho. He was not only watchman-in-chief, the alert
guardian of residence and mine; he was also tender of
babies and chopper of wood for overworked housewives,
mail carrier to prospectors and trappers in outlying can-
yons, and nurse to the sick and distressed. North, south,
and east were persons no less charitable or strange.
Some of them, it is true, were not so gentle as Sam.
This great Area has known women who could could pick
a deer up by its heels and antlers and throw it down cellar,
or murder a husband with an iron skillet and bury him
A TRIP INTO THE AREA 355
and never lose a night's sleep. It has known men whose
only law was the law of survival, whose only belief was
the cogent one that it is better to be alive than dead. Far
eastward in that misty acreage of canyons is a man
whom, Forest Rangers declare, nobody would be fool
enough to approach — or lucky enough to approach and
emerge alive. This hermit never bathes except when he
falls into a river, and never lays eyes on another human
being if he can help it. He is bearded and wild and tame-
less. In some hour, years ahead, his bones will be found in
his shack, and it will be told of him only that he died alone
and unconquered, with his gun at his side. Years ago
there was a wild family here, and none of them, legend
declares, had ever bathed in all their years of life. One
of them, a fiercely beautiful girl, was on a pretext lured
from the wild hermitage of her home and threatened with
a bath. The Supervisor of a National Forest summarizes
the picture : "I shall never forget it. She withdrew to the
farthest room of the house and stood in a corner, trem-
bling like a fawn, her nostrils distended and her dark eyes
terrible with fright and scorn. In the majesty of her
terror and contempt she was the most beautiful thing I
have ever seen." But not all of the persons living in this
remote jungle are indifferent to the refreshing kindness
of water and soap. There are, for instance, John and Jim
(the names are disguised) , two old-time gamblers : their
house, immaculate inside and out, and with everything
fastidiously in its place, is one of the many miracles in
Chamberlain Basin.
The plane will probably set down in this Basin, for it
is, with the possible exception of the watersheds west of
Jackson Hole in Wyoming, the greatest elk country on
earth. If, on the way here, a digression is made south-
ward, the site of Roosevelt will come into view. Once a
lusty town, it is now a lake; and it is said that adven-
turous and thirsty men still dive down to the submerged
saloon and swim around among the beaver, searching for
the whiskey that is supposed to be there. But Chamber-
356 IDAHO
lain Basin, for the wanderer on the trail of buck and big-
horn, deer and elk, is the first objective. Pilots declare
that elk here are so abundant that now and then they
have to be scared off the landing field before the plane can
set down; deer are so many that the only rancher in an
area of three hundred thousand acres has to build a nine-
foot fence around his garden; and trout in Fish Lake
westward are scooped up by the pailful. And Miles How-
ard, an old-timer with eyebrows as big as shrubs and a
beard like barbed wire, declares that blue grouse so infest
the region that he no longer bothers to use a gun. He
merely takes a cudgel and knocks their heads oif . Just
north of this field is the Reeder Ranch.
It is possible, of course, to fly directly from McCall to
such a ranch as the Flying W or Double O, but direct
flight would disregard some most impressive vistas. If,
from Chamberlain Basin, the plane heads eastward, in
a few minutes it will be above a magnificent depth of
spilled peaks and sheer walls where two great rivers join
their waters. Here, at the junction of Salmon River with
the Middle Fork, the sculpturing that has been achieved
by time and erosion is overwhelming. Not far southward
are the Bighorn Crags, said to be the most rugged range
in the Northwest. These are really a huge garden of
granite monuments and turrets, with the highest of them
reaching an altitude of more than ten thousand feet, with
most of them as stripped and lonely as the stones in a
graveyard. Ship Island Lake is an enormous jewel among
them.
In going up the canyon of the Middle Fork, one of the
three deepest gorges in North America, anyone who has
ever heard of him will want to make the detour by way
of Big Creek to look down upon the remotely silent shack
where Cougar Dave lived. Famous as a lion hunter, and
until his death possibly the most remarkable person in
Idaho, Dave Lewis was a small and unconquerable king-
dom of his own. Here in the utter loneliness of Big Creek,
with nothing around him for half a century except peaks
^W^
o
A TRIP INTO THE AREA 357
and wild streams, wild animals and a blue ceiling of sky,
he lived with his guns and his dogs. He killed many men
during his time, but he always carefully explained that he
had to kill them — meaning, but meaning it gently, re-
morselessly, that he preferred the long end of the draw.
His eyes were as cold as the back of a hzard, his skin was
like leather thrice tanned, and his walk had the stealth
of the cougar itself. Dave was not something that hunted
adventure: he was adventure itself. Nor was hunting
lions a theatrical matter with him; it was only the un-
exciting routine of making a living, of keeping his guns
oiled and his dogs fed. In July of 1936, at the age of
ninety -three, he felt a little ill — possibly for the first time
in nearly a century. Alone, he hiked out of this deep dark
canyon for more than twenty miles and asked a distant
friend to take him to Boise. The next day he was dead.
Just up Big Creek from his shack is the Soldier Bar
landing field, a small narrow table nearly a thousand feet
above the stream. Planes land here, and take off, too ; but
most passengers, after looking down on this tiny white
strip of land, prefer to continue southward. Southward is
the barren rocky gorge of the Middle Fork, with a farm
now and then hugging the river and looking no larger
than a tennis court, with a winding pack trail, the only
way out, following the stream. The Blackie Wallace, or
Flying W, Ranch has a part of its history recorded in
murders, the most picturesque of which concerns a gen-
tleman who killed another man with a hay knife, and
then saddled the assassination on the horns of a bull.
Blackie Wallace is almost a legend himself, with one of
the more spectacular of his eccentricities lying in the fact
that his only son is named Bill Borah. Along this river
are the Mormon Ranch, the Jones Ranch, the Ramey
Place, and a few others, each so far from the end of a
road, each so completely isolated in a canyon more than
six thousand feet in depth, that persons flying far above
and looking down are likely to be amazed to learn that
women and children live there. Around them is the
358 IDAHO
largest solid expanse of blue peaks and nebulous moun-
tainous distance in the United States. In any direction
for a hundred miles, and in some directions for a much
greater distance than that, there is only an ocean of thou-
sands of zeniths, each high and imperturbable in a misty
blue integrity of its own ; of thousands of lakes, each cool
and fragrant and perfect; of tens of thousands of wild
animals hiding below among the millions of trees. From
peak to peak, from backbone to backbone, the landscape
lifts and falls until it shimmers in mist and distance and
withdraws to the far purple horizons that look like
neither mountain nor cloud. In the far southeast are the
Sawtooth spires ; in the far northwest is the tumbled blue
cloudland of the Seven Devils.
The plane will descend to some landing field upon this
river, and at some dude ranch the expedition will be out-
fitted and a pack string will take its way to the country of
deer or elk, goat or sheep. No matter which direction is
taken, there will be incalculable wonder north, east, south,
and west. The path will skirt towering mountains upon
which the evergreen timber will be so dense that it will
look like solid growth ; past blue lakes so numerous that
nobody has ever counted them ; through deep canyons and
up high ridges from which the streams below will look
like white strings of beads; across torrents coming in
tumultuous foaming journeys down from the moraines;
through autumn gardens aflame with leaf and with flow-
ers smoking and fragrant under recent frosts ; and along
rocky flanks where stone, spilled in millions of tons, defies
everything but sheep and goat or the agile mule.
Around campfires at night, if the guides have been
well chosen, there will be many a tall tale. There may be a
Dave Lewis story of a cougar, skulking, cowardly, and
waiting for a deer, that was so frightened by the sudden
screech of a horned owl that it slipped in flight and fell
a thousand feet down a precipice to break its neck. There
may be a story of how Dave grunted with scorn at the
statement that he was a brave man because he climbed
ATRIP INTO THE AREA 359
trees and shoved mountain lions off a limb to the fury of
his dogs. It may be a Sam Cupp story of an old-timer who
once homesteaded one of these precipitous slopes and fell
off his ranch so many times that he gave up in disgust
and returned to Alaska. Or it may be the story of a
Missourian who boasted of his coon dog :
"I remember it was along about 1855 and I set that
dog on a coon track. Well, he tracked him for two or
three miles through the woods until he came to a piece
of ground that had just been plowed and he lost the scent
because the coon went over that-there ground before the
plowing. Well, the farmer raised a good crop that year.
I waited and when he plowed the ground again, what do
you think happened ? Why, he turned that coon track up
and that old dog, he just picked up the scent and caught
that coon in no time. And that was the biggest coon I
ever saw. ..."
Around campfires, too, there will be much that any
man, once he has known it, will wish to return to, or
that any man, never having known it before, will take
to his heart. There will be the smell of pine and cedar
boughs on a friendly fire, fragrance of bacon in a hot
skillet, and of coffee steaming. There will be the smell of
old cones and leaf depths, aspen hillsides, mahogany
reaches, and landslides of stone. Persons who pack into
this area know the smell of bear or rockchuck, of elk beds
or beaver slides, goat and golden eagle. They know the
feel of bridle rein and of gun and saddle horn, the sound
of cascades, the flavor of mountain trout; the smell of
wide clean landscapes, the smell of health. They sleep on
the earth and breathe of it and walk on it all day, re-
membering the hard pavements of city streets. They
breathe the fragrance of blue sky, and of winds that
travel down over evergreen valleys from the fields of snow.
Persons who pack into this jungle of mountains and
streams nearly always get their big game: a bighorn if
they want one, a mountain goat — and a deer and an elk
with no trouble at all. But the intangible possessions are
360 IDAHO
for many of greater importance than those. They learn
that joy can be deep, a man's appetite ravenous; they
discover how sweet a crust of bread can be at the end
of a day's hard journey ; and they discover the depth of
untroubled sleep. Instead of a ragged and anguished
weariness of heart, they know the tiredness of muscles
hungry for nourishment, the deliciousness of food flood-
ing the mouth. With wolfish appetites, they search the
camp for signs of food and wonder if there is food enough.
Far from a beauty-rest mattress, they fall to earth on a
blanket or on no blanket at all, and sink into dreamless
sleep.
And after the pack string returns to headquarters,
with the mules staggering under their burden of wild
flesh, the return by air is usually made under the clear
candor of sunlight. The landing fields in the Area are
short and a little hazardous, and cautious pilots demand
an untroubled ceiling and far vision. The more adven-
turous, of both pilot and hunter, prefer to return by
moonlight ; because at nighttime this almost infinite wild-
erness wears a different beauty. It is an especially dra-
matic experience to climb out of the canyon of the Middle
Fork after dark, with the plane going round and round
its orbit and wheeling like a great bird from shadow to
moonlight, with the plane climbing more than a mile
before it can clear the lowest peaks and look out over the
terrain homeward. The daylight journey is one of broad
plateaus of distance ; the journey under the lazy melon of
a moon is one of incalculable sorcery, with everything be-
low softly and indescribably unreal.
Canyons now are only deep dark valleys of shadow;
mountainsides are pale golden fairylands; and peaks are
obscurely solitary with the glory of night. Lakes flash
like mirrors and fall backward into gloom, and rivers and
creeks appear and vanish like highways of gleaming sil-
ver. Forest lookouts are utterly lost in their high and
remote desolation. A village or a mine, a ranch or a
landing field, is only a momentary wonder upon the rolling
A TRIP INTO THE AREA 361
carpet of distance. Westward the Seven Devils Peaks are
less real than the sky above them; and in the southeast
the bluish monuments of the Sawtooth Range look as if
they reach halfway to the moon. And upon the ragged
horizon clear around the compass, stars are tangled in tree
tops, and clouds are banked like blue cotton upon the
peaks.
IV
BURIED TREASURES
IV
BURIED TREASURES'
ALL WESTERN states have buried treasures, some
beyond all question actual, some legendary, with the
two often indistinguishable in folklore. A few of many
have been chosen from Idaho for summary here. All of
them have been searched for by many persons and for
many years, and in all cases there is good reason to
believe that they really exist, even though tradition may
have exaggerated their sums. Obviously no attempt can
be made to localize them, even if all the maps, both fabulous
and real, were available : it is intended only to suggest by a
few instances the nature of the treasure-hunting industry
of the State ; for hundreds of persons have spent thousands
of dollars and a good part of their lives in attempts to
find buried loot. In some cases (not included here) the
loot has been found.
0# U S 191 (Tour 1). In former years the Jackson
Hole area of Wyoming was a favorite hide-out for rascals
of all breeds, and four of these men once engineered a
robbery that netted them $150,000. When a posse pursued,
two of the robbers were killed, a third was wounded, but
the leader escaped with the plunder and fled to unfrequent-
ed mountain trails. Near Rea upon Snake River in Fre-
mont County the wounded man died and was buried, and
the leader hid most of the loot near the grave. In Montana
1 This essay is indebted chiefly to J. A. Harrington, who probably
knows more than any other man about the hidden treasures of the
State.
366 IDAHO
he was captured and wounded and thereupon gave direc-
tions to the hidden money. The chief factors in this story
for gold seekers are an old trail, a ford on the river, and
a grave ; but the area is a large one and though many per-
sons from time to time have searched here, none of the loot
has been found.
Such escapades as this one inspired a man living in
Teton Basin in the days when horse-drawn coaches took
visitors to and from Yellowstone Park. With a handker-
chief over his face and a sawed-off shotgun in his grasp,
he waylaid coaches again and again until he had con-
siderable quantities of money and jewels. Some while
later a part of the stolen jewelry was found in his home
in the Basin, but he had buried the money and it has
never been found. The circumstances are hardly definite
enough to impel gold seekers to action, but the next case,
much better known, is more promising.
Off U S 91 (Tour 1 b). This pilfering occurred at
what is known as Robbers Roost, three and a half miles
north of McCammon. It was in 1865 that the southbound
stage was halted and $100,000 was taken after four pas-
sengers had been killed and the driver wounded. The rob-
bers fled, but it has always been argued that the amount
of gold was too heavy for quick flight by horse and that
in consequence a large part of it must have been buried
near the scene of the crime. One of the thieves, a man
named Updyke, was tracked down by vigilantes the next
year and hanged to a tree in Alturas County. The exact
site of this robbery is definite. The question is whether
the men buried a part of the loot or took all of it with
them.
A man (disguised here as Red) had respectable par-
ents and an evil temper and joined the army only to
desert and cast his misfortunes with a notorious band of
outlaws. After two of them were killed. Red discovered
that a reward was placed on the head of any member of
the gang, and so cunningly shot his partner and started
to flee. He had one pack horse loaded with gold, and the
BURIEDTREASURES 367
weary nag refused at the mouth of Camas Creek in Jef-
ferson County to travel farther. Red shot the beast and
with a small sum of gold went his way and eventually
reached his childhood home, where necessity and not wish
forced him into an honest life. Years later, when an
Idahoan visited the town, Red told him he knew where a
huge store of gold was hidden and offered to return to
Idaho and find it; but at the last moment he weakened
and refused to budge. He did, however, tell the story of
his life and give directions to the cache; and died a few
days later, appropriately penitent and destitute. This
buried treasure is estimated at $150,000 ; and though the
area of its concealment is known, there are no definite
clues to the spot itself.
Glowing tales of gold in Idaho in 1863 brought a
tenderfoot out of Montana and led him to the lower can-
yon north of Spencer, where he met a man who was
freighting by pack horses into the mines. This freighter
was in a hurry and in consequence engaged the young
man to take the pack train to Virginia City in Montana.
But the young man got lost and wandered for several
days; and one morning, while hunting for his horses,
he stumbled upon a rich ledge of gold and gathered
samples and proceeded on his way. Upon reaching his
destination, he displayed the ore, and great excitement
prevailed among men who were not easily excited. The
tenderfoot, however, was unable to retrace his journey
to the ledge, and it doubtless awaits rediscovery.
Near the present town of Camas in Jefferson County
the old stage road crossed Camas Creek. Upon a time the
stage, carrying a large amount of gold, was held up near
the old Camas station, and the robbers turned south
with their loot and buried it on the east side of the creek
near a small lake. A little later they were surprised and
a running fight ensued. Later, one of the scoundrels com-
mitted a crime for which he was sentenced to a peniten-
tiary in the East ; but before his death he drew a map for
a fellow prisoner to show where the gold was hidden.
368 IDAHO
During the year of 1909 and for several years thereafter
this man appeared with teams and scrapers and a crew
and excavated here, declaring that he was building an
irrigation canal. After he became discouraged a crystal-
gazer came and stared into a glass ball and instructed the
men as they drove their teams. After plowing up half
the countryside here, the former jailbird gathered up
his maps and vanished ; and the treasure remains.
One day a stage carrying gold approached a rock
(since known as Hold Up Rock) in Beaver Canyon a short
distance above Spencer in Clark County. Four heads ap-
peared, two on either side of the rock, and shots were ex-
changed; but the robbers got possession of the gold and
were almost at once hotly pursued. Two of them were
wounded and captured and hanged to a tree. The other
two hid the gold just east of the railroad Y in Beaver
Canyon near the old town of Beaver, and fled. Captured
later, they described where the loot was hidden, but the
officers were unable to find it ; and while they were decid-
ing to force the robbers to guide them, the vigilantes
swung into action and hanged these two members of the
notorious Plummer Gang to the beam of a log cabin.
Off U S 30 (Tour 3 h). Six miles above Boise on the
south side of the Boise River there was formerly a sec-
tion covered with brush and willows that was a favorite
early hide-out for plunderers. Near this spot the east-
bound stage from Boise was once stopped by a lone rob-
ber; and though he got possession of the strongbox
containing $50,000 in gold, he was wounded by a pas-
senger and only with difficulty dragged the box after him
into the shrubbery as he fled. On the next day a posse
from Boise found him dead in the willows not far from
the scene of the robbery but they were not able to find the
box. It has been supposed that the man buried the loot
before he died.
Near Oakley occurred a robbery that has since become
well known. Upon the narrows at the head of Raft River
another lone bandit robbed the stage and escaped, though
BURIEDTREASURES 369
an alarm was later sounded in Strevell and a posse started
in pursuit. They tracked the robber to the City of Rocks,
and he was there captured and sentenced to jail; and
though officials of the insurance company which pro-
tected this route often visited him in jail, he persistently
refused to tell where he had hidden the gold. A cattle
thief later occupied a cell with this robber, and after an
inquisition by officials the latter confided in the former,
declaring that upon his release he would return and re-
cover the plunder. But the robber was stricken with con-
sumption and died. Though he never divulged the spot,
it has been assumed that the gold, estimated at $150,000,
must have been hidden in the rocks of the city; and
many persons have explored here and some still explore.
Off State 27 (Tour U). Well known in and around
Blackfoot was a freighter called Blackie who was a good
judge of whiskey and Kked a stiff game of poker. His
associates, wanting in foolhardiness themselves, per-
suaded him to rob the stage on its way to Blackfoot from
the Salmon River mines. After watching the loading of
the gold, the confederates sent word to Blackie, and after
fortifying himself with several drinks and taking with
him a bottle from which to sip courage, he took up his
vigil west of the town and waited. Unable after the rob-
bery to make off with the heavy box, he buried it among
the lavas near the road and returned to Blackfoot; and
on the next day he and his more timid pals got as drunk
as lords and rode out to get their loot. They were met
by officers and a barrage of gunshot and fled into dark-
ness ; and on the next day Blackie was found dying. He
told as well as he could where the $40,000 in gold was
hidden, but it still remains in the lava fields.
In early days before machinery was brought into
Custer and Lemhi Counties, the rich gold ore was freight-
ed from the mines by pack train. Across the arid region
between Blackfoot and Arco a freighter was proceeding
with a six-horse load of rich ore when he decided to upset
one of the wagons and hide the wealth for his own use in
370 IDAHO
a small cave near by. In Blackfoot he reported that his
horses had run away and scattered the ore over the desert,
but the owner of the outfit, after following the wagon
tracks, became suspicious and had the driver arrested.
He was acquitted. But he was also closely watched, and
after several unsuccessful attempts to return unseen to
his cache, he apparently gave it up and later died while
working in the mines of northern Idaho. The ore which
he hid is said to have been worth $2,000 a sack.
In the late seventies gold bars were regularly shipped
from the Custer Mine in Custer County. One of these
shipments was stopped by a lone highwayman on Root
Hog Divide a few miles east of the Big Butte stage sta-
tion in Butte County. He was tracked northward up Little
Lost River but was not overtaken, though later he was
surprised in a gambling den in Salmon City. He admitted
that he had five thousand dollars of the loot on his body
and happily agreed to lead officers to the remainder, which
he had buried in the lava beds near the spot where it was
taken. Upon arriving at the scene, he cunningly maneu-
vered until dark, pretending that he was seeking his land-
marks; and then put spurs to his horse and rode out of
sight and was never again seen here. Thirty years later
a young man came from New Mexico with a map on which
was marked a cave near the old stage road by the Root
Hog Divide. The stranger declared that the map was
made and given to him by the robber who was afraid to
return; but the New Mexican went back home without
the gold.
Off State 28 (Tour 5 a). On the Birch Creek Water-
shed of the low range west of the junction between State
28 and State 29, in the extreme southwestern corner of
Clark County, is a rich ledge of silver ore which assays
from eight hundred to twelve hundred ounces per ton. In
1888 William Tyler and Sam Goddard were on a bear
hunt. When they came upon silver quartz here they for-
got about bears and remembered the lost Texas Jack Mine
which had been found in 1885. Texas Jack had died in
BURIED TREASURES 371
Salmon City but he had drawn a map of his lost mine
and was very explicit in his directions. The Richard
Ranch was ten miles southeast, Rattlesnake Point was
fourteen miles northeast, and a high peak east of Nicholia
was twenty-five miles north. Among Texas Jack's effects
after his death was ore that assayed one thousand ounces
of silver to the ton. But Goddard and Tyler, also finding
their samples rich, proceeded to harvest their crops and
upon returning the following year discovered their mine
to be as lost as Texas Jack's.
In the summer of 1890 an elderly man applied at the
Lidy Hot Springs for a job and devoted his spare time
later to the rolling foothills north. After several months
he announced that he was unable to find an old pine tree
that used to be near the springs and asked old-timers if
it had been cut down ; and said further that when he was
a guard in a penitentiary he had been given by one of the
prisoners a map which exposed the location of a buried
fortune in gold. The map showed a dry gulch north of the
springs, with a pine tree near ; but trees had been scarce
and had all been felled, and the fifty thousand in gold
buried at the foot of one of them may still be there.
During the gold rush south of Gilmore in Lemhi
County a small smelter was erected and a town estab-
lished under the name of Hahn. While mining hme rock
to be used in the smelter, one of the workmen uncovered
several bars of gold and quickly re-covered them, intend-
ing to return later undetected. But winter set in and deep
snow covered the mountain; and in the next spring the
smelter ceased operations and the workmen moved away.
The man attempted to find his gold and failed and there-
after searched for it annually. Its site is north of the
spring on the old Davis ranch.
Two highwaymen named Sy Skinner and Bob Zachery
were hanged by vigilantes at Hell Gate in 1864. Among
other robberies, they were charged with that of the stage
west of Birch Creek in Lemhi County. Of the four rob-
bers, two were slain at the scene, and their graves are
372 IDAHO
still to be seen near Horse Thief Trail, which goes north-
ward into Montana. The other two, fancying they would
draw a lighter sentence, told the vigilantes where they
had hidden the gold, declaring that the spot was near the
old pack trail skirting Spring Mountain on the gravel bar
at the mouth of the longest dry gulch running eastward.
The spot was marked by a circle of round water-sculp-
tured boulders. But treasure seekers have found more
than one gravel bar, each with its round boulders, and
have spent a good part of their time sitting in doleful
meditation, wondering v/hich is the right one.
Off State 22 (Tours U and 1). On the northern edge
of the Craters of the Moon and a half mile east of State 22,
a large black volcanic rock stands some fifteen feet above
the surrounding flow. Looked at from the right direction,
the rock shows as the profile of an Indian chief adorned
with headdress. In the late seventies the immigrant road
known as Tim Goodale's Cutoff passed near this rock, and
stolen gold was hidden in a cave of which the Indian head
is the chief landmark. The directions given to officers by
members of the gang follow: on the twenty-first day of
June, mark the spot where the rising sun casts a shadow
from the Indian head to a mound of lava westward. Using
this line as a base, proceed directly from the head south-
ward one half the distance between the first two spots and
here a cave will be found which outlaws used as head-
quarters and in which they hid their gold. Instructions so
explicit ought to invite any gold seeker to be at Indian Head
annually on the twenty-first of June.
In Kelley Canyon just above Heise Hot Springs $50,-
000 in gold dust is buried. It was on a cold evening in
September that Jim Kelley was overtaken by a posse and
hanged near the bank of the river for his indiscreet part
in a robbery near Mud Lake the previous evening. The
bandit who fled with the box got out of Idaho by way of
Bear Lake and had a look at several Eastern States before
returning. But upon his return he was unable to find the
gold and, feeling illness, went to Spokane for attention.
BURIED TREASURES 373
During the ensuing winter he realized that he was dying
and thereupon gave to his landlady a map of the canyon
with the loot indicated, and this excited woman thereafter
annually pitched her tent in the gulch and gave her sum-
mer to study of the map and vain attempts to find the
wealth. As with so many others, it seems unreasonable
to doubt that the buried gold is still there.
Ojf U S 93 (Tour 5). During the placer days of the
Boise Basin, there were two robbers who had preyed
busily on miners and had resolved to get out of the
country. They had reached a point on the road known
as the Cottonwoods on Big Wood River in Lincoln County
near the Shoshone Ice Caves when they were overtaken
by a posse that shot their horses from under them. The
robbers took to the lava fields. At some distance eastward
they erected a barricade but were surrounded and shot,
and it is supposed that their loot, estimated at $75,000,
must have been buried not far from the spot where their
horses fell.
A prospector with the unfortunate name of Swim
found gold quartz on the south side of Salmon River near
Robinson Bar and the mouth of Yankee Fork where a
storm had unearthed a huge tree. Beneath the roots was
exposed a ledge of honeycombed quartz that assayed
$18,000 to the ton ; and the claim was staked and recorded
at Challis. Having no money to prosecute his claim, Swim
allowed winter to overtake him, and by the time the deep
snow had melted in the following spring his story had
traveled far and he was followed by enough gold seekers
to fill a town. When the party reached Stanley Basin in
June, a parley was held, and Swim declared to the multi-
tude that he preferred to go alone and stake some claims
for his financial backers. There was vigorous protest.
Swim thereupon said he would not proceed except alone,
and the gold hunters yielded and he went down the
Salmon River. When, after several days, he did not re-
turn, the others followed him and discovered that his
horse had entered the river but had not emerged, and
374 IDAHO
later its bones were found in a log jam. Swim's ledge of
rich ore is still unclaimed.
When placer mines were profitable in the area of Idaho
City, robbers were almost as numerous as woodpeckers,
and three of them raided the stage as it swung around a
bend near the confluence of Grimes and Moore Creeks.
They took $90,000 in gold dust and fled, but the messenger
had left and doubled back by way of the next canyon east
and surprised the rascals by shooting them off their
horses. But they had hidden the strong box, and it re-
mains hidden.
Around Boise. In early winter another stage was
speeding northward from Silver City when a lone high-
wayman asked for the express box. The remainder of the
story is less credible. It declares that as soon as the
stage had vanished the robber brought forth his horse,
attached a rope to the strongbox, and dragged it across
the prairie after him as if he had roped a calf. Tiring of
so heavy a cargo, he shot the lock off the box and dis-
appeared with its contents into Kuna Cave. Meanwhile,
a number of men had started chase and surprised him as
he entered the cave and then established a vigil at its
entrance ; but during the night he escaped. It is supposed
that he buried most of the gold after taking it from the
box.
Dave Levy was a prosperous and secretive man who
had a drinking place in Boise. One time when a new
sidewalk was being laid around his dwelling, he as-
tonished the workmen by asking them to raise a part of
the walk and thereupon lifting out a pot of gold. From
this and from the circumstance of his riding often
in Rocky Canyon north of Boise came the legend that he
had buried most of his wealth ; and when, following his
murder in 1902, the administrator of his estate was un-
able to find the money which Levy had been known to
possess, it was suspected that most of it had been hidden
in the canyon. Since then many persons have spent their
Sundays exploring there, and even today a favorite pas-
BURIED TREASURES 375
time with some is a day spent in Rocky Canyon searching
for Levy's gold.
Off U S 95 (Tour 7 b.) During the period of heavy
production of gold from the mines in and near Florence,
pack outfits carried the mineral to shipping points. Doc
Noble was paid a dollar an ounce to guard and transport
gold to Lewiston. When one of his trains was attacked
and the beasts stampeded, a running fight ensued, the
horses were frightened beyond control, the guards were
momentarily overwhelmed, and the highwaymen got their
hands on $75,000, which they hid in the rocks near the
trail. The scene of this robbery was on the east side of
the old pack trail along the Salmon River south of White
Bird. After concealing the gold, the bandits headed for
the rough Seven Devils area, but all of them were even-
tually overtaken and slain before returning to find their
cache. There can be little doubt that this fortune still
remains among the rocks in the canyon.
Among mines that have been most persistently hunted
is the Lost Cleveland on the Middle Fork of Salmon River.
A man named Cleveland followed a rich float up the moun-
tainside a half century ago and uncovered a ledge of very
rich ore. He gathered all that he could carry and sold it to
the mint in San Francisco and then returned to his home
in Missouri to reflect on his good fortune and to visit his
relatives. The next year and thereafter he was unable to
find his ledge of gold and he died while still searching and
today his body lies near the Yellowjacket Mine in Lemhi
County. The Lost Cleveland Mine has lured many pros-
pectors into the wilderness of the Primitive Area but has
never been found.
V
GHOST TOWNS
V
GHOST TOWNS
MUCH OF Idaho for the sensitive person is lonely
today with memory of the vigorous and turbulent
life of towns and cities where there is now only desola-
tion and a handful of ruins. Where once there were thou-
sands of persons there may now be only a few shacks,
or there may be nothing but a stone or a tree and the
indefinable loneliness of something that is dead. For Idaho
in one perspective is an area of ghost towns or of spots
where not even the ghost remains. In mountain basin or
on hillside or in valleys of sunlight and sage there were
towns, more than half a century ago, that leapt into
being in a night or a week and sometimes ran their des-
tiny within a year. Nor in this State was their number
few. There were dozens of them, and today they are
housed in a dilapidated and aging handful of what they
used to be, or their former existence is commemorated
by a weedy cemetery and a ruined wall, or they are as
dead and gone and as forgotten as the men and women
who made them. Some of them, of course, took on a more
extravagant importance and not only grew to considerable
size but were the metropolises of large areas. Others, less
spectacular, came into being so quickly and precariously
that a wind could have blown them down ; and vanished
almost v/ithout leaving a sign.
There is what once was Springtown just west of the
present Hansen Bridge. In the eighth decade of the last
century it sprang into existence on the rim of the Snake
380 IDAHO
River Gorge. Today there are only the ruins of some
mud huts in which Chinese miners are said to have lived
while they feverishly panned gold. There was Bullion a
few miles west of the present town of Hailey : it had two
general stores, a post office, a hospital, many dwelling
houses, and nobody knows how many saloons. Today
nothing remains. Or Oro Grande, situated on the west
side of Loon Creek, had as many as five stores and a
saloon for every store. The gold here was exhausted in
about a year, the gulch was abandoned and sold to the
Chinese who trailed the more enterprising hordes and
reworked what they left; and now the site of this town
is indistinguishable from the country which surrounds
it. Vienna at the base of the Sawtooth Range had almost
a thousand persons in it and was the largest of the mining
towns in this region. The last resident left it in 1892.
One of its competitors. Sawtooth City, flourished for
many years, but when, in 1897, the postmaster resigned
there was an exodus, with only five persons remaining in
possession of everything in sight. These weathered one
more season and then left Sawtooth City to loneliness and
the snow. Up north in the Panhandle, Eagle City was
once the capital of the Coeur d'Alenes and so thriving and
ambitious a place that extensive improvements were
made, and town lots, inviting newcomers, lay almost the
length of a mile. Today Eagle City is not even shown on
a map. And there were Galena and Kingston, Florence
and Gem — or Moose City which once had nine thousand
persons. Today it can be reached only by horseback in
a journey of three days over the Bitterroot Divide, and
where once was a city of nine thousand, only one decaying
log cabin stands now.
But not all of these cities of a half century ago per-
ished so completely as these. Many of them are still on
the maps and have a handful of survivors living in mem-
ory among the ruins. There is Leesburg a few miles west
of Salmon City: first settled by immigrants from the
Southern States and named for General Robert E. Lee, it
GHOSTTOWNS 381
was once a city of several thousands, had a main street
a mile long, and even a Chinatown. Now, with twenty-five
inhabitants, it is only a lapful of wretched shacks and
haunted streets. Leesburg still appears on highway maps,
but Nicholia, in the same area, has suffered greater indig-
nities and has only a half-dozen buildings smelling of
age and ruin, and a population of fewer than ten. More
impressive in its history, if not in its present appearance,
than either of these two is Mount Idaho, the first town
built on the Camas Prairie. In 1876 it was not only the
county seat of Idaho County; it enjoyed such prestige
that the first Republican convention in Idaho Territory
was held here, and the city dreamed obscurely of becom-
ing the capital of an empire. In 1922 its post office was
discontinued because no one among the few persons re-
maining could be induced to apply for the job. Compara-
ble in its former glory and in its present stubborn yield-
ing to decay and silence is Pierce City, which blossomed
out of a gold stampede as early as 1861. It was a county
seat, too, and had a Chinese population of nearly a thou-
sand and a joss house which rivaled the courthouse in
splendor. The courthouse was sold some while ago for
fifty dollars, to the astonishment of the residents of
Pierce City, who could not understand how this once
famous building could be worth fifty cents. This historic
building, the first of its kind in Idaho, was turned by its
purchaser into a private residence.
All of these many ghost towns have had a colorful
and dramatic past, and it is of interest to look more
sharply into the history of a few of them. Silver City
is today the most picturesque of the lot of them and the
patriarch of the ghosts. Set high in the Owyhee Moun-
tains of southwestern Idaho, its history began in 1863
with the discovery of gold in Jordan Creek upon the head-
waters of which it stands. A few miles down the creek
from it was Ruby City, a town of eight hundred persons
and the county seat of Owyhee County, and the two
entered at once, in the way of frontier towns, into bitter
382 IDAHO
competition, and it was clear from the start that one of
the two would destroy the other. Because of its proximity
to spectacular mines and because of its geographical pro-
tection from the high and violent winds, Silver City tri-
umphed, drew Ruby City's population to its breast, and
became the county seat. It so completely annihilated its
rival that the exact spot of Ruby City is not today known,
though it has in an unfenced cemetery on the northern
side of Silver City its memorial and the sleeping place of
many of its dead.
The discovery of gold and silver in this area was more
than ordinarily spectacular. Ore from the Poorman Mine
assayed between four and five thousand dollars to the
ton, and a mass of solid ruby-silver crystals weighing a
quarter of a ton was discovered at a depth of a hundred
feet. Some of these crystals won a gold medal at the Paris
Exposition of 1866, and Silver City in no while at all be-
came internationally famous. The city reached its peak
a half century ago : it had a newspaper then ; a Catholic
Church was dedicated to "Our Lady of Tears" ; a barber
shop was advertising baths as a specialty ("Call and be
convinced") with a photograph of an actual bathtub in
the advertisement, and it had barrooms with impressive
mirrors and polished interiors. Silver City needed only
a fire engine to make it the undisputed rival of Boise.
And because another of its competitors, the thriving town
of Fairview on War Eagle Mountain, was without such
a gadget, everything in it except its cemetery burned
to the ground in 1875, and Silver City absorbed its
population.
And in other respects, too. Silver City became famous
clear to the parlors of Boston. Almost in Silver City's
dooryard two mining companies recruited thugs and en-
gaged in desperate warfare; and it was in front of its
chief hotel that one of the feudists was shot to death.
The hotels themselves were more than usually interest-
ing, even in a country where a hotel might be anything
from the haymow of a livery stable to an enterprising den
GHOST TOWNS 383
of harlots. The Idaho Hotel was the more magnificent of
the two, but like the War Eagle, it was a crazy aggregate
of buildings, varying in height from one to three stories,
and put together, at least in the case of the second, around
a small cabin that had been built by an early pioneer. The
War Eagle, haunted by the ghost of a young girl who had
died there, was deserted many years later, and in 1917 it
gave up its precarious and despairing existence and col-
lapsed. This city, similarly with so many others, boomed
and receded like the tides; suffered periodic depressions
or glories; and took its way steadily toward desertion
and ghosts. But as late as 1898, long after its chief tri-
umphs had expired, it had six general stores, two hard-
ware stores, a tin shop, two meat markets, two hotels,
four restaurants, a photographer's gallery, a brewery and
a bottling plant, a jeweler, a newspaper, two lumberyards,
a tailor shop and three barber shops, four lawyers, two
doctors, and eight saloons. Since then many of its build-
ings have been torn down, though it still has an Episcopal
Church looking down from a rocky eminence, a Masonic
Hall spanning Jordan Creek, a deserted county courthouse
and several deserted saloons, and a hotel. It suffered its
most crushing blow in 1935 when the county seat was
moved to Murphy. Today it lives hopefully from year to
year, scanning the horizon, meditating on its dead glories,
and watching its buildings sag and fall. It would be im-
possible to convince the fifty people now living where
several thousands used to be that Silver City will not some-
day make the grass grow in the streets of Boise.
Dewey, only five miles away, was earlier called Boone-
ville and came into splendor of its own only after a
wealthy man took a fancy to it and tried to build it into
a monument to himself. It was in 1896 that Colonel W. H.
Dewey bought a mining property and with it the deserted
town of Booneville. He spent lavishly and was not content
until he had made Booneville one of the most attractive
towns in the State and had renamed it after himself. His
Dewey Hotel, with its cupola and double portico, was for
384 IDAHO
a considerable while the pride of Owyhee County; pic-
tures of the hotel and of its caretaker's house appeared
on postcards, cream pitchers, china cups, and souvenir
spoons. This hotel was steam heated, electrically lighted,
and given every advantage of sanitation that the Colonel
had ever heard of. Whereupon, still ambitious and still
endowed with funds, he built stores, a steam laundry, a
barber shop, an elaborate house for his superintendent
of mines, a water system with fire plugs that were de-
clared to secure for the town an "almost perfect immuni-
ty from fire," and a livery stable more impressively pros-
perous than most hotels of the period. But for all the
town's immunity, the Colonel's gaudy hotel burned to the
ground, though the superintendent's house, with its
elaborately carved gables and its porch railings, "white-
crusted and as untouchable as a wedding-cake," stood for
many years. When its steps rotted away and its railings
sagged, an enterprising person in Silver City removed
the bannister and stairway to a house there. And today,
of all Colonel Dewey's costly memorials to himself, only
a few deserted buildings remain and not a single per-
manent resident. A few sheepherders get their mail here
during the summer months.
Dewey is five miles from Silver City, DeLamar is
nine, and their history in some respects has been much
alike. The latter was once called Wagontown because it
was only a stopping place on a stage line ; but when Cap-
tain DeLamar bought the Wilson Mine and adjacent
claims in 1888, he built a hotel and even a schoolhouse
and changed the name of the place to honor its benefac-
tor. In 1891 he sold his interests to an English company,
and there was an influx of Cornish miners, "a small, dark,
energetic people, quick of speech and lively of wit" who
"marked the little town with the peculiar pungency of
saffron cakes, seedy bun and black tea." By 1898 there
were a hundred and fifty pupils in the red brick school-
house. There was a spicy and entertaining newspaper
called the DeLamar Nugget. Today the town is deserted,
*
GHOSTTOWNS 385
though down the long winding main street many of the
buildings still stand, smelling of emptiness and death. In
the second-story parlor of the hotel, the piano strings have
been taken by rust; and upon the window ledges of the
assay office there are dusty bottles and the smell of acid.
The footprints upon the streets now are those of the
rabbit and the coyote.
Such are three of the ghost towns in that picturesque
and relatively unexplored region known as Owyhee Coun-
ty. With an area greater than that of Connecticut and
two Rhode Islands put together, it has a population of a
few more than four thousand and no town in it appreciably
larger than the ghost towns themselves. Not very dif-
ferent from it is the Boise Basin, still another part of
Idaho where many a thriving city is now almost less than
a wraith of its former self. Pioneerville, New and Old
Centerville, Placerville, and Idaho City are a few of these,
with the last two pre-eminent over all others in the lusti-
ness of their past and the landmarks of their present
existence. More than any of the others, they were rich in
murders and hangings, feuds and melodramatic deaths,
cemeteries and saloons.
Placerville is a miracle of persistence because it has
survived not only desertion but also several destructive
fires. As late as 1931 a great forest fire came in a deluge of
smoke and flame across this part of the State, consumed
Quartzburg and many mines close by, and fell in a roaring
yellow flood to the edge of Placerville and almost made
this town curl up like a sheet of paper on a hot lid. It
burned the trees in the cemetery and poured huge burn-
ing cinders upon the post office and hotel and made the
whole place look as if it had been drawn half cooked out
of a gigantic oven. But Placerville has always clung dog-
gedly to its life. The town was built around a square
which, strangely enough, was called the Plaza, and its
chief saloon, the building of which still stands, went un-
der the fragrant name of Magnolia. In front of it is
the old well, still with rope and bucket, that was so im-
386 IDAHO
portant a part in tragedies of early days: it was here
that a man, stopping his mule train while he drank from
the well, was accosted by a villainous gambler who wished
to amuse his friends who sat on the Magnolia's porch. He
first threw a bucket of water into the wanderer's face;
and then, while the astonished man was half choked and
sputtering and reaching uncertainly for his gun, he shot
him dead. The murderer was acquitted, of course, on
self-defense, inasmuch as in those days it was less trouble
to acquit a man than to cart him off many miles to a
jail.
Not far from this town occurred a slaying that is
today known as the murder of the fiddlers of Ophir Creek.
These musicians, called fiddlers in those days, were on
their way to Centerville when they were shot in their
backs by nomadic thugs and robbed. The bodies were
found at Ophir Creek with the fiddles at their sides and
were buried, two by lodges and one by the county, in the
Placerville cemetery. Their graves are now marked by
four pine trees, with one in each corner of the lot. But
these were dark and dangerous times. Gold dust was
legal tender, and a glass of whiskey was worth a pinch of
it, though a cat, in early days, was worth a whole jug.
An epidemic of mice sent a thoughtful man on a journey,
and when he returned he brought a whole wagonload of
cats and sold them for ten dollars apiece. Before 1864
mail was brought into the town by horseback at a price
of fifty cents or a dollar for a newspaper or a letter,
depending perhaps on the number of thugs patrolling the
highway. In this year Placerville got a post oflJice, a
school, and three stage lines. By 1870 the placers were
exhausted and the boom was over. Today the Magnolia
still fronts the Plaza, which rests in peace under its weeds
and tin cans.
But of all the ghost towns, perhaps Idaho City has
had the most dramatic and interesting history. It has
run through the cycles of triumph and defeat, with its
population flowing in or out by thousands, with its destiny
GHOSTTOWNS 387
moving uncertainly from year to year. At the zenith of
its power it is said to have been a city almost as large as
Boise today. It was, beyond all dispute, the metropolis
of a huge area and one of the centers of activity and
growth of the entire Northwest. Now it has only two
hundred persons; and if it still clings to the odds and
ends of a former glory, it does so chiefly because it is the
seat of Boise County and a spot of unusual interest less
than an hour's drive from Boise itself. The turbulence of
its former life, the violence of its ways, is to be inferred
from the statement of old-timers that only twenty-eight
of the two hundred persons buried in its cemetery in
1863 died natural deaths.
Its jail was the first in the large territory once called
Idaho, and this jail, used until 1870, was the scene of
some stirring episodes. It had two sturdy rows of cells
and a doughty stockade that enclosed a whole acre of
land, but long ago it fell under decay and erosion and dis-
appeared. During its life, it and the cemetery were an
inseparable picture, because not only were the rascals
hanged within the stockade and buried there but the
vigilantes commonly met in the graveyard to plot the
death of scoundrels who still lived. There was Ferd Pat-
terson, for instance : gambler, gunman, and murderer, he
killed the captain of a boat in Portland, scalped his ex-
mistress, and climaxed his playfulness by slaying the
sheriff of Idaho City. Ferd was, records declare, a pulp
villain of the first water: he affected high-heeled boots,
plaid trousers reinforced with buckskin, a fancy silk vest
spanned by a heavy gold chain of California nuggets, and
a frock coat of beaver cloth trimmed with otter. But
the sheriff whom he killed is described by an early his-
torian as one of "nature's noblemen," and not fewer than
a thousand men awaited Mr. Patterson's return with a
deputy who sailed out to capture him. The mob was bent
on lynching, but the deputy outwitted them and got his
prisoner safely into the jail; whereupon the vigilantes
met in the graveyard, went to Boise and got a cannon.
388 IDAHO
and resolved to attack. But the deputy, a man who ap-
parently was remarkably nimble of wit, got a cannon
also, cut portholes in the jail wall, manned his fortress
with a bunch of desperadoes, and waited. And he won.
It is not recorded that he almost died of chagrin when
Patterson went to trial and was freed.
This episode is typical and it is only one of many.
After a shyster named St. Clair was hanged within the
stockade, the rope was to be seen for many years in a
lunchroom with this legend under it: This is the rope
that hung St. Clair. The Chinese here, of whom there
were several hundred, also helped to keep monotony out
of this town. Their Fan-tan Hall was a noted gambling
resort, and every evening at sunset a lantern was hung
in front of its door and an attendant bellowed in Chinese
that the game was open. After the placers were worked
out, most of the Chinese left, but a few remained, living
alone and dying off, one by one.
And today Idaho City is as picturesque and interesting
a spot as can be found in the State. Like Placerville it has
suffered the outrage of many fires, and most of its his-
toric buildings have, in consequence, been lost. It has
been disfigured by dredging and decay, but its little white
Catholic Church still stands on a hill, and its streets are
still vivid with memory of a time when Idaho City was as
melodramatic a spot as ever came out of frontier life.
A considerable distance north of Idaho City and just
west of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River is the
Thunder Mountain district, one of Idaho's most inacces-
sible and remarkable areas. In early mining days this
region had two unusual towns, Roosevelt and Thunder
City, with a population together of nearly five thousand.
Roosevelt itself had many substantial buildings, including
a post office and laundry, and every saloon had a piano
in spite of the circumstance that everything had to be
freighted in on muleback. The boom in this region was
as short-lived as it was sensational, though Roosevelt
years later sprang again into dramatic rehef. At a time
GHOSTTOWNS 389
when a former governor of Kansas was fleeing from the
wrath of his State, with William Allen White hot on his
trail, he was caught and killed with a companion known as
Hot-foot. Roosevelt, White declared, was "a log town
with one street and no society," and soon thereafter it
was not that much. A capricious mountain delivered upon
it all in one blow a landslide and a flood and so completely
buried the town that only two or three buildings re-
mained visible. The residents escaped, but one enterpris-
ing matron of a bawdy house lost her piano and profaned
mightily at the men who, in full flight with their hair
standing on end, refused to come to its rescue. Today the
beaver have taken possession of Roosevelt (which is a
small lake) and have built their home in the attic of a
house that was not wholly buried. Thunder City, too,
was distinguished at one time by severe winters, fabulous
riches, and the number of its saloons. Escaping sudden
burial, it has vanished piece by piece off the landscape;
and today the Thunder Mountain area is very quiet.
The Yankee Fork district in Custer County is almost
as rich in ghost towns as it formerly was, and still may
be, in minerals. There were Bay Horse and Clayton and
Crystal, Custer and Bonanza, with the latter two prob-
ably the most widely known. These are only a few miles
apart, and the truth of one is the truth of the other, save
that Custer never afforded the luxury of a cemetery. This
fact assumed considerable importance a few years ago
when a miner in Custer was blowTi up with dynamite and
had to be carried through ten feet of snow to Bonanza for
his burial. Gold in this area was discovered in 1870, the
city of Bonanza was laid out in 1877, and two years later
it had grown so impressively that it had five lawyers and
nine saloons. It had a newspaper, too, the Yankee Fork
Herald, and a laundry whose owner advertised in this
fashion :
Celestial laundry, Charlie Bumboo, Prop.
Shirts nicely starched and beautifully polished.
390 IDAHO
One of the leading gambling houses, the Classy and Hogle,
is said to have had as much as thirty thousand dollars on
its tables at one time.
But the only item of interest in Bonanza today is the
cemetery. Of one grave, far removed from the others
and fenced off within its own loneliness, the following
story is told. A woman of infamous flavor was found shot
to death in a dance hall, and the respectable folk of Bo-
nanza did not want to bury her in their brand-new ceme-
tery which they had proudly fenced ; nor did they fancy the
custom of Silver City which interred beyond the fence
the persons whom it scorned. Bonanzans compromised
by burying her off in a corner of her own and erecting a
high fence around her; and there she is today, asleep
under the legend :
Agnes Elizabeth King, a native of London, England
Died July 26, 1880
Bonanza and Custer have no more than fifty persons be-
tween them now. Bay Horse is even less fortunate, but
it got used to adversity many years ago when the Federal
Government refused to allow it the privilege of the name
it had chosen and rechristened it Aetna.
And these are only a few of many.
VI
A FEW TALL TALES
VI
A FEW TALL TALES
Tj^VERY Western State has its tall tales, a few of which
■^ are indigenous but most of which belong to the folk-
lore of the world and reappear with variations as some-
thing new under an old name. Of the few given, it is not
known how ancient their ancestry may be or in how many
countries and times they have been born anew; but only
such fables have been chosen as seem likely not to have
been trademarked by too much use. The first was told
by Fay Hubbard, one of the first sheepherders in the
State.
Fay Hubbard's Dog
Soon after the Oregon Short Line Railway was laid,
Hubbard went to Omaha with sheep, and after he had
squandered all his money but five dollars he decided to
buy a dog and ride the blinds back to his home. But the
only thing he had ever ridden was a horse and he got
by mistake on the observation platform, taking his hound
with him, and was accosted by an angry conductor who
told him he didn't mind a hobo but he hated a pooch.
Hubbard said he would tie the dog behind and let him
follow the train on a leash; and did so, and at the end
of the first fifty miles the dog was hardly panting.
Whereupon, more annoyed than ever, the conductor
yelled for more steam, swearing that he would drag the
beast to death; but at eighty miles an hour the dog
trotted serenely, sometimes on three legs, sometimes on
394 IDAHO
two, and with a philosophic eye on his master. At Grand
Island the conductor ordered more speed, and from there
to North Platte the train did a hundred miles an hour
and the dog never tightened the rope, though the tele-
phone poles alongside looked like the teeth of a fine comb.
Seeing with what nimble ease the hound followed, the
conductor fell into a great fury and the train was
whipped up to incredible speed ; and though the dog now
had to use four legs, he did so with grace and without
perturbation, with the rope sagging like a clothesline be-
tween him and the train. At a hundred and eighty miles
the conductor looked out and saw that the dog had
vanished.
"And where is your gad-dinged pooch now?" he asked.
Hubbard said to look ahead, and as he did so the train
came to a crashing stop with the boxcars telescoping one
another like a bunch of egg crates hit with a pile driver.
For the dog had broken the rope, had taken the red flag
from the cowcatcher, and had run ahead to flag the en-
gineer for a washout. And from here the dog rode to
Idaho, and dogs have been free passengers on Union
Pacific trains through the State ever since.
Long Tom
Thomas Wickersham was an old-timer who as a lad
was so thin that for two years he traveled with a circus
as a living skeleton. After he had taken so many reducing
powders that he rattled when he walked, he invested his
savings in oil and went out to see his property. But he
was unable to find it and after many miles he climbed to
the top of a derrick the better to see and became dizzy
and fell off. He came down headfirst and went headfirst
into an eight-inch gas pipe and was swiftly on his way
underground when it occurred to him to press out with
his knees and elbows to check his descent. Nevertheless,
he traveled at lightning speed through the pipe and was
shot like a cannonball into a vast underground cavern of
gas where, with unusual presence of mind, he knew he
AFEWTALLTALES 395
would soon suffocate. He wiped his eyes until vision
cleared and then perceived an opening that led to a still
larger chamber; and he entered and followed this tunnel
and it spread to incalculable dimensions, but after several
miles he came to an underground river which proved to
be of kerosene. This he swam down for a mile or more
before he left it to sit on the bank and have a smoke;
and the match he carelessly threw into the river. The
whole enormous underground region awoke and burst into
a sheet of flame, the heat of which was disconcerting;
and Wickersham took to his heels down the bank. He
ran for a long time, noticeably distressed by the river
of fire at his back,, before he came to a tunnel which
proved to be as round and smooth and almost as small as
a gun barrel. This he entered upon hands and knees. Be-
hind him there was a stupendous explosion which fired
him out into a long parabola and set him down on the
front porch of 218 San Francisco Street in Boise. There
were only three Indians in Boise then and two coyotes and
one of the Territory's absconding governors.
To Tan a Hide
His name was John Shipton but in the Hood River
country he was known as Happy Jack. He came to Boise
Basin during the gold rush, bringing with him his fiddle
and its three strings upon which he could make better
music than other fiddlers on a full set. One day he left
his mountain retreat to hold the farmers' harvest. Most
of the ranchers on Silver Creek were Missourians, and
Happy Jack was an Arkansan with a quaint drawl, and
both Jack and his native State were held under sarcastic
summary.
"They tell me the women in Arkansas chaw terbacker
and go barefoot and eat tree mice. Is that so. Jack?"
"Hey, Jack, and does the men go barefoot, too?"
"I guess so," said Jack. "And we made the shoes our-
selves. Hey, I remember one time back in 1840 and pap,
he sent me out huntin to git a hide for to make a pair
396 IDAHO
of shoes. He counted the bullets and measured out the
powder and I had to fetch a hide for every bullet or I
got a tannun. Well, I hunted all day and didn't see nothin
to shoot at except a few squirrels. So long about sundown
I reckoned I'd kill a squirrel but every time I'd go to
shoot at them dad-burned things they'd hide behind a
tree and I couldn't see nothin but the head and I didn't
want to shoot the head for pap warned me to bring the
brains of anything I killed to tan the hide with. Well, I
finally got mad and shot one in the head and I just about
blowed all the brains out. That made me feel pretty bad.
Well, I was in for a wallopun when I happened to re-
member there was a settlement of Missourians over the
hill just about as far as I could see and twice as far as I
could holler. Well, so I decided to go down there and
shoot one them-there Missourians for some brains to tan
that squirrel hide with."
"Oh, the heck you did," said one of the men.
"Yes, and I did," said Jack. "But that ain't the worst
of it. Say, you know I had to kill nine of them-there
Missourians to get enough brains to tan that hide?"
The Death of Sam Rich
Sam Rich was brought up in Cassia County. After
he got his first spurs he was riding the lava beds in
southern Idaho when he saw a bunch of painted savages
following him. And they were beyond all question
savage. They crowded close upon him and he raced
pellmell for the roughest lava fields and the arrows fell
around him like confetti on New Year's Eve and he was
forced to leave his horse. He jumped into a narrow rift
and fled down it, and behind him came thousands of In-
dians whooping like mad and slicing the air with their
tomahawks and biting their fingernails; and then sud-
denly the crevice came to an end. There was a deep
waterfall in front of him, a straight wall on either side
of him, and so many Indians behind him that the earth
was shaking with their enthusiasm. . . . When Sam Rich
AFEWTALLTALES 397
reached this point in his story he always paused and
looked forlorn and abject and nodded his head with tri-
umphant unreason. And when the silence was broken
with an anguished whisper, "My God, Sam, what did you
do then?" Sam looked around him with awful woe and
dropped his voice to a pouting falsetto. "They killed me,"
he said.
Idaho's Boom
An insurance salesman, down at heel and scurvy of
disposition, was sitting in unspeakable melancholy one
morning, wondering how he could make a living now that
no one in Boise ever died, when he had a thought. He
leapt to his feet and kissed his wife, a circumstance suf-
ficiently strange, inasmuch as no one in Boise had kissed
his wife in months. He remembered that a wealthy man
had come from the East to buy land, and with him he
vanished into the lava domains, not stopping for blow-
outs (of which there were none) and running over several
pedestrians, all of them from California. "Now here,"
said the salesman, "is the chance of your life — of a dozen
lives like yours, in fact. Are you from Boston ? Anyway,
you're looking at the greatest unexploited stretch of land
on earth — on any earth, and I don't care where your earth
is. In fact, you're looking at ground that is practically
worth its weight in gold — and it's heavy ground. Will you
lift a hunk of it? Try that pile of basalt. Try that hill.
Or don't you Easterners lift hills any more?"
"But what," asked the wealthy Easterner, "would I
do with this ground? What could a man grow on land
like this?" And he fell to his knees and looked with
singular earnestness into the lidless gaze of a horned
toad. He rose and knocked a pile of basalt from his knee.
"What?" he said.
"Anything. Cocoanuts and bananas and avocados,
grapes and oranges, melons and grapefruit and pecans.
Or orchids. Or even wheat. The question is : what do you
want to grow?"
398 IDAHO
"Well, now," said the Easterner cannily, "anything
that will make money."
"Very well. Up there is a reservoir to irrigate it.
There is the sun. You need only sun and water to make
anything grow. And it never freezes here."
"Not here?" said the Easterner, politely amazed. "Not
in this land," he said, looking around him, "which I should
judge to be in Idaho?"
"Never. It never freezes and it never thaws."
"I don't understand," said the Easterner urbanely.
And he sneezed. "Pardon me," he said.
"It's a secret. You see all these piles of lava? Or
what," asked the salesman, "are you looking at? Now
this lava absorbs the heat from the sun in the daytime
and holds it all night and when it's fifty below in Boston
it's like the middle of June here."
"I can't believe it," said the Easterner, and sneezed
again.
"Place your hand on that rock." And the Easterner
did, and it curled up like a bacon rind on a hot stove.
"It is rather warm," he said. But to make sure he
sat on a stone and his flesh began to steam, and he added :
"It is very comfortable here. How much do you want for
this land?"
"A thousand dollars an acre — and that includes fifty
boulders to the rod. A hundred boulders to the rod will
cost you more."
The Easterner rose and looked around him happily
for he had never seen such a bargain. He bought two
hundred acres and set to work, and before he had plowed
up the first acre of stone he uncovered $125,000 in gold
that was buried here by Bitch Creek McDade and his gang
after they had robbed the Arco stage. He averaged there-
after a buried treasure to the acre and started drilling
and in the second month sank a shaft right through the
center of the Lost McElmore Mine.^ He turned up the
1 See the essay on Buried Treasures.
AFEWTALLTALES 399
John R. Rudd mine next, a very rich vein that had van-
ished in 1871 and had never again been heard of; and
then took the Lost Bonanza, the Lost Gilpin McCreary,
and both Lost Rivers in turn. A town, the Winnie Mae,^
sprang up overnight and within a year had a population
of fifteen thousand. Lost mines were yanked to the sur-
face all over this terrain, and buried treasures stood
around as thick as bags of potatoes in a field in October.
Winnie Mae is a ghost town now between Shoshone and
Arco, but persons still go to the area and dig up minor
treasures, though they usually do not average more than
fifty thousand dollars to the pot.
Why Idahoans Are Careful With Fire
Sam Strickland was a member of a threshing crew
when the men lit their fags and Sam gave his lecture.
"Careless smoking," he said, "leads to a sad experience.
I'll tell you. When I was a kid and didn't know any bet-
ter, I was working in a Du Pont powder mill. I was mak-
ing rifle powder and I had my pipe full of Durham but
it wouldn't burn and I lit it a dozen times and it wouldn't
burn and then I got me a hickory coal and laid on the pipe.
That coal must have rolled off when I didn't know it
because when I went to the grub house for dinner I saw
a big smoke rolling up from the mill and I just about
knew that mill was on fire. I finished my dinner as quick
as I could and then the gang of us went over but we dallied
along too much. I lost my job that time. For twelve
tons of the best powder we had burnt up before we could
put that fire out."
A Crack Shot or Two
Carl Buck of eastern Idaho was a crack rifleshot. He
could trim the whiskers off a cat at a hundred yards or
shoot between the legs of a hummingbird at fifty. One
1 Named for Winnie Mae Spooner, the mistress of Deadshot
McDoodle.
400 IDAHO
morning he saw a coyote out in a field and seized his gun
and at just a little over half a mile blazed away. The
coyote did not budge. It was strange, Carl reflected, that
he had missed so easy a shot; and after approaching a
hundred yards nearer he fired again. And still that coyote
stood there beyond the sagebrush and looked at him. Carl
examined his gun and approached another hundred yards
and again fired — and again drew nearer and fired and
drew nearer. When he was only fifty yards away, he sat
and took a dead rest and delivered six shots — and still
that beast stood without batting an eye and stared at him
across the sagebrush. At this point Carl began to have a
weird sense of unreality, and for perhaps an hour he
wiped his brow and looked at the coyote and the coyote
looked at him. He thereupon decided to approach with-
out firing, and learned to his amazement that he had
with his first shot struck the beast exactly in the center
of the forehead and had put twenty-six more bullets
through the same hole. The coyote's chin had caught in
the fork of a sagebrush and there the villain had hung
as dead as a doornail while its body from its neck clear
to its tail was being shot completely away.
The On and Off Country
Much of the country in northern Idaho is so precipi-
tous that old-time prospectors and trappers there always
had to level the ground for a spot to rest their bed on.
A few years ago three gentlemen from Minneapolis came
out to invest in fruit lands, and were accompanied from
area to area by two real-estate agents. They had not
gone far when a great boulder fell at their feet, and while
they were staring up at the mountains and the sky around
them, a whole cargo of stones came down and spilled
around them. Amazed and apprehensive, they proceeded ;
and a little later a tree came down and crashed into
splinters across their path, followed after a moment by
a pig, seven chickens, and a team of mules. They waited
in horror, wondering if the sky was coming after the
AFEWTALLTALES 401
mules, when a man came down with an awful bang and
rose in fury to his feet and shook himself. "Confound
this country!" he roared. "This is the third time today
that I have fallen out of my fruit ranch !"
Snake Medicine
The cowpunchers of the Salmon River country grew
tired of their sowbelly and doughgods and resolved on a
change of fare. With spades they dug for earthworms
and filled a tobacco can, and the next morning bright and
early they saddled their nags and set out to fish the Mid-
dle Fork of the Salmon. On arriving, they learned that
they had forgotten their worms, and while looking around
for bait one of them saw a bull snake that had partly
swallowed a frog and was resting in his labors. The cow-
puncher massaged the snake's throat and worked the
frog upward and released it but the snake looked up at
him so reproachfully that he said, "That's a devil of a way
to treat a poor snake what has been out earnun his livun
just like us." So he drew his flask of whiskey and opened
the snake's mouth and gave the reptile about a half a
finger. The snake stuck out its tongue and looked very
benign in its eyes and then began to wiggle its tail and
roll over as if exceedingly happy. The cowpunchers used
the frog for bait; but after awhile one of them was
attracted by something that tapped insistently on his
boot. He looked down and there was that bull snake,
gazing up at him hopefully and holding another frog in
its mouth.
Paul Bunyan Was Here Too
And of course all old-timers in Idaho remember the
night when Paul Bunyan drank nine kegs of rum in Idaho
Falls and started for Seattle with his blue ox. It was a
black wet night full of rain, and Paul wandered stupen-
dously in a great drunken stupor, with his crooked trail
behind him filling with water. The trail since that time
has been known in all geographies as Snake River.
402 IDAHO
Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction
But legends in Idaho are in many instances no taller
than the truth itself. Of authenticated but almost unbe-
lievable stories of actual events, the following is typical
of many. William Howell and Andrew Morrison were once
accosted by Indians in early days, and when the red men
learned that the two invaders were unarmed they let off
a terrific whoop and two confederates came to the scene.
Howell wanted to run but Morrison swore that he would
never run from an Indian. They strove, in consequence,
to make peace, but one of the Indians declared that a
white man had killed an Indian on Battle Creek and they
were on the warpath to avenge the murder. The white
men offered their team but it was their scalps that the
Indians wanted. They then persuaded the Indians to go
to town with them and mounted their load and started,
but the wagon got stuck in a crossing and while Howell
and Morrison were laboring to get it out, they were at-
tacked. Morrison was struck by an arrow. He shouted
to Howell to flee and Howell did so, escaping the flying
arrows. Morrison was struck twice, one arrow lodging
below his collar bone and the other below his heart. The
arrow below his collar bone he pulled out but the head
of the other broke off. Howell, meanwhile, sounded an
alarm and the Indians fled. A messenger went all the
way to Salt Lake City with a team of mules and the front
half of a wagon and returned with a doctor, but the doc-
tor said the spike of the arrow was too near the man's
heart. He said Morrison could live only a few days at
most. But Morrison lived for twenty-seven years with
the spike lodged near his heart and his spine.
(
VII
ORIGINS OF NAMES
I
VII
ORIGINS OF NAMES
MOST of the names of places and things in Idaho have
been derived from Indian v^^ords, from some geologic
or topographical aspect, or from animals and persons.
Those have been omitted in which the derivation is ob-
vious ; all the goose and elk and sheep and bear and deer
creeks, or such names of counties as Washington or Jef-
ferson, or such names of towns as Fairfield and Cascade.
The following list does not affect completeness : it includes
the Rees investigations to which are here added about a
hundred more.
ADA: For Ada Riggs, the first white child born in Boise.
ADDIE : For Addie Greenway, wife of an old-timer.
AGENCY CREEK: For the Lemhi Indian Agency, established in
1872.
ALBION: Named because an old-timer thought the word meant
mountain lion.
ALMO : Named because of the cottonwoods there.
ALTURAS: A Spanish word meaning mountainous heights. Still
the name of a lake, it was also once the name of a county.
AMERICAN FALLS: These falls on Snake River were called
American for a party of trappers of the American Fur Com-
pany that ventured down in canoes and was unexpectedly pitched
over the cascade.
ARCO: Rees says this town was named after a city in Austria,
but another authority declares it was named for a visiting Count
Arco. Possibly neither was right. The original settlers called
the town Junction, but the U. S. Post Office Department decided
it had too many Junctions already.
ARIMO: An Indian word (air'-i-mo) which means that the uncle
bawls like a cow.
406 IDAHO
ASHTON : Named for one of its founders.
ATHOL : For an Indian chieftain.
ATLANTA: For a battle in the Civil War.
BEAR LAKE: The river under this name was first called Miller,
but the Indians called it Quee-yaw-pah, meaning the stream
along which the tobacco root grew. The lake was given its
present name by McKenzie in 1818.
BENEWAH : Ben'-e-wah: for a chieftain of the Coeur d'Alenes.
BISUKA: Bee-soo'-ka: Indian for not a large place.
BITCH CREEK: An unhappy corruption of Biche Creek. The
French word means doe.
BITTERROOT: Named for the bitterroot, the State flower of
Montana. The root of this plant, though edible and formerly
used for food, is extremely bitter.
BLACKFOOT: Uncertain. The Blackfeet Indians called them-
selves Siksika because their feet are said to have been blackened
by wading in ashes.
BLISS: Named not because of the town's happiness but for one
of its settlers.
BOISE: Named by French Canadians who, after a long journey
through semiarid regions, exclaimed Les Bois! upon seeing trees.
In pronouncing this word, Boiseans today neither anglicize
the word nor retain the French. Some call it Boy'-see and
some, Boy'-zee.
BONNERS FERRY: For E. L, Bonner, who built a ferry on the
Kootenai River here in 1864.
BONNEVILLE: For that indefatigable explorer, B. L. E. Bonne-
ville.
BOVILL: For Hugh Bovill.
BRUNEAU: The river, canyon, and town, all in Owyhee County,
were named by French Canadians. The word means brown or
gloomy water.
BUFFALO HUMP: This name was given to the volcanic cone
by Indians. Their word was see-nimp.
BUHL: For Frank Buhl, an early empire builder.
BURGDORF: For Fred Burgdorf, who discovered the springs.
BURLEY: For an agent of the Union Pacific Railroad.
CACHE : From the French cacher, meaning to hide.
CALDWELL: For a Senator from Kansas.
CAMAS: This is from the Chinook and means sweet.
CANFIELD: For one of the few survivors of the Whitman
massacre.
CARMEN: For an early settler.
CASSIA : Named for the cassia plant along the creek.
CAT A: Cah'-tah: Indian for hard ashes or cinders.
ORIGINSOFNAMES 407
CAVENDISH : For the town in Vermont.
CENTERVILLE: This ghost town was first called Hogum be-
cause some of the settlers wished to declare their contempt for
the greed of their neighbors. Outraged patriotism later threw
Hogum away and called the place Centerville because it was
midway between Placerville and Idaho City.
CHALLIS: For A. P. Challis, who founded the town.
CHILCO : Uncertain but probably of Indian origin.
CHINOOK : An "aspirated, gutturalized, sputtered, and swallowed"
jargon widely used by both whites and Indians in early days.
It was a dialect of French, English, and Indian.
CLARK FORK: Named, of course, for the explorer, this river has
been called Bitterroot, Deer Lodge, Hell Gate, and Missoula.
CLEARWATER: This river was called Kookooskia by Indians.
The word means clear water.
COCOLALLA: Indian for cold water.
COEUR D'ALENE: The origin is still uncertain. The best au-
thority seems to favor heart of an awl, a derisive term applied
(in Indian language, of course) to greedy trappers from Can-
ada, who thereupon applied the epithet to the Indians themselves.
COLTKILLED CREEK: When oppressed by hunger, Captain
Clark was always unfelicitous in his choices.
CONANT: This creek and valley are called Coonard by those who
live there. They were named for a man who came within an inch
of losing his life in the stream.
CONDA: A diminutive of Anaconda.
COOLIN : For an early settler.
CORBIN: For an early settler.
COUNCIL: It was in or near the present town that Indians
gathered for powwows.
CRAIG : For William Craig, a comrade of Kit Carson.
CULDESAC: Meaning literally in French the bottom of a bag,
the word more loosely indicates a place with only one outlet,
CUPRUM: From the Latin meaning copper.
DEARY: Not intended as an endearment, this town took its name
from an early settler.
DECLO: Dek-lo: for two pioneer families, Dethles and Cloughly.
DENT: For one of its founders.
DOLBEER: For an early settler.
DRIGGS: For an early Mormon.
DUBOIS: For a former Senator, Fred Dubois.
EDEN: A former Senator named this town (but not facetiously)
from the Bible.
EMIDA: After the surnames of the first three families to settle
there : ^ast, Miller, and Dawson. E-mi'-da,
408 IDAHO
EMMETT: For Emmett Cahalan, the first white boy born there.
FILER: For Walter G. Filer. j
FIRTH: For one of its founders.
FORT HALL: For Henry Hall. I
FRANKLIN: Named for the leader of the Mormons who settled it. s
GEM: This county was perhaps named gem because it has been i
supposed that Idaho means gem of the mountains. |
GENESEE: For the town in New York. \^
GILMER: For John T. Gilmer. >
GOODING : For former Governor Frank Gooding. [
GRANITE: Named for the stone formerly quarried here.
GUYER: These springs were named for Captain Henry Guyer.
HADEN: Named for a man named Hayden. {
HAILEY : For John Hailey.
HAMER: For Thomas R. Hamer. ?
HARPSTER : For an early settler.
HAWLEY : For former Governor James H. Hawley.
HEISE: For Richard Clamor Heise, an old-timer.
HOPE: Like Bliss, this town was named for a man and not be-
cause the settlers were depressed.
HYNDMAN PEAK: This, the second highest peak in the State,
was named for Major William Hyndman, a veteran of the Civil
War.
IDAHO: The name, pronounced I'-da-ho, is a contraction of Sho-
shoni words "Ee-dah-how," which have been translated with utter
disregard of accuracy as "gem of the mountains." The first In-
dian syllable is intended, as nearly as we can tell, to convey the
idea of coming down, and is the generic root in such Shoshoni
words as raining and snowing. The second syllable is a root for
either sun or mountain. The third is almost precisely the equiva-
lent of the English exclamation mark. Bearing in mind, there-
fore, the way language evolves and the manner in which words
become either more or less pregnant with meaning, it seems
reasonable to suppose that for the Indian mind, Ee-dah-how
once declared that the sun was coming down the mountain, and
that this recognition of morning was so pleasant to the Indian
that he made it exclamatory. Later, however, in the way of
language, the expression came to mean both more and less, to
become emotionally nebulous in content on the one hand, and
on the other to become more definite and exact in its actual
symbolism. Thus Ee-dah-how seems quite certainly to have been
an exclamatory greeting equivalent to It's sunrise! or It's
morning! and to have indicated to the Indian mind the circum-
stance of another day and the need to arise and go to work.
But any expression of that kind, either in the Indian or in any
other mind, is also, of course, invested emotionally beyond the
ORIGINSOFNAMES 409
reach of definition and precisely or even obscurely what the
exclamation meant to the Indian beyond the fact of sunrise we
do not and can hardly hope to know.
Idahoans of the past, taking their lead from poetic fanciers
who suggested the matter, have persisted in translating the
term as gem of the mountains, indifferent to the enormous in-
congruity of calling an empire resting upon a granite batholith
two hundred thousand square miles in area a gem. There is, of
course, more poetry in the simple cry, "It is morning!" with its
investment of eternities and awakening and renewal than in all
the gems in existence. One Idaho historian says that the In-
dians "beheld a lustrous rim of light shining from the mountain
top. This radiant mountain crown or diadem was likened to a
gem glittering from a snowy peak." If the notion of a gem
glittering from a snowy peak had been in the Indian's mind, it
seems unreasonable to suppose that he would have characterized
the vision in words which declare the sun is coming down the
mountain.
It is said that the name was first used in 1859 when Idaho
Springs, the first permanent settlement in Colorado, was found-
ed, and that the word was familiar to these settlers through
their contact with the Comanche Indians whose dialect was much
like that of the Shoshoni tribe. In the autumn of 1860 the
name was given to a steamboat launched at Victoria by a man
who had lived in Soda Springs. In 1862 the Washington legis-
lature gave the name to a county which is now the largest in
Idaho. When in 1863, the Idaho Territory was established.
United States Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts thought
Idaho the most appropriate of all the names suggested, possibly
because a colleague from Oregon declared that the word meant
gem of the mountains. It is thought that the spelling was
changed to its present or to very similar form by Joaquin
Miller.
INKOM: Ink'-um: an Indian word meaning red hair.
JEROME : Named for Jerome Hill.
JOSEPH: For that brave warrior. Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces.
JULIAETTA: For Julia and Etta Snyder.
KALISPEL: Indian meaning canoe or boat people. Kullyspell is
a corruption.
KAMIAH : Kam'-e-eye : from Kamiaken, a chieftain of the Yakima
tribe.
KANIKSU: Ka-nick'-su: an Indian name for a priest who was
buried in what was once Kaniksu but is now Priest Lake.
KELLOGG: The original name of the famous mining town was
Milo but it was changed to honor Noah Kellogg, who discovered
the Bunker Hill Mine.
KENDRICK: First called Latah, the name was changed to honor
an engineer.
410 IDAHO
KETCH UM : Once called Leadville, this town was changed to honor
David Ketchum.
KEUTERVILLE : For Joseph Keuter, a pioneer farmer,
KIMAMA: Kee'-mah-mar : an Indian word meaning butterfly.
KOOSKIA: A shortened form of Kookooskia (see Clearwater).
KOOTENAI: A corruption of Kutenai, the Indian name for them-
selves. The word means water people.
KUNA : Indian meaning green leaf or good to smoke.
LACLEDE: Apparently for an engineer of the Great Northern.
LAPWAI : Nez Perce Indian word meaning place of the butterflies.
LATAH : First syllables of two Nez Perce words : la-kah meaning
pine tree and tah-ol meaning pestle.
LEESBURG: Soldiers from the Civil War quarreled over the
naming of this mining town and finally had both a Leesburg
and a Grantsville, the latter of which was absorbed.
LEMHI: A corruption of Limhi, a character in the Book of
Morm,on.
LOLO: Named by the Flathead Indians for a man named Law-
rence. Loulou was as near as they could come to pronouncing
his name.
MALAD: Named by French Canadians because they became ill
here.
MALTA: For the island of Malta.
MEN AN : An Indian word meaning going home.
MIDAS: Named for Midas in the hope that the feverish touch
of prospectors would turn the place into gold. It did not.
MINIDOKA: A Shoshoni word meaning broad expanse.
MONTOUR: Named by a woman who sought a word expressive
of the beauty of the mountains.
MONTPELIER: Named by Brigham Young after his birthplace
in Vermont.
MORA : Moo'-rah : Indian for mule.
MOSCOW: Said to have been named by a Russian with the un-
believable name of Hogg.
MULLAN: For Captain John MuUan.
NAMEKO: Nam'-e-ko: Indian meaning drive away.
NAMPA: Two Shoshoni words namp and puh meaning bigfoot
and referring to a chieftain who is said to have had a foot six
inches wide and seventeen inches long.
NAPATA: Nah-pah'-tah: Indian for by the hand.
NAPIAS: A Shoshoni word meaning money.
NEZ PERCE: Means pierced nose, of course, though inasmuch as
these Indians never pierced their noses it is probable that nez
presse (flattened nose) was intended.
NOTUS: Indian for "it is all right."
ORIGINS OF NAMES 411
OAKLEY : Named for a stage superintendent.
OMANI: Oh-mah'-nee : Indian meaning to walk or travel.
OREANA: This word seems to mean an unbranded yearling.
OROFINO: Spanish words oro and fino meaning pure gold.
OWINZA : Oh-ween'-zah : Indian meaning to make a bed of or use
for a bed.
OWYHEE: A corruption of Hawaii.
PAGARI: Pah'-gah-ree : Indian for lake or pond.
PAHSIMEROI: From the Shoshoni words pah meaning water,
sima meaning one, and roi meaning grove. This one grove of
evergreens by a stream in the Pahsimeroi Valley was miles from
any other trees.
PALOUSE : A French word meaning grassy spot or place.
PAYETTE : For Francis Payette, a Hudson's Bay trapper.
PEND D'OREILLE: Whether the name was given to the Indians
because of their earrings or because in shape the lake is said to
resemble an ear is not known. The first seems more probable.
PETTIT (Lake): For Tom Pettit.
PICABO : This Indian word, commonly pronounced peek'-a-boo,
means come in, and is correctly pronounced pee-kah'-bo.
PINA : Pee'-nah : Indian for sugar.
PINGREE : Named for its founder.
POCATELLO: From the Shoshoni words po (road), ka (not),
and tello (to follow). Though some residents of Pocatello
strenuously object, it seems nevertheless that this Indian chief-
tain was a shifty fellow who refused to follow the road. Or
perhaps he lived his name down.
PORTNEUF : Uncertain. Perhaps the ninth gate or the river of
nine gates.
POTLATCH: From Chinook, it means giving. The story is told
of a Nez Perce Indian who ferried prospectors across the river
on a cayuse. One time the pony stumbled and a huge Irishman
was thrown into the stream, whereupon the Indian yelled,
"Potlatch quarter! Then drown if you want to!" Most likely the
Irishman swam out.
PRICHARD: For one of the discoverers of gold in this area.
RAFT RIVER: So named because early settlers had to cross its
mouth on rafts inasmuch as beavers had filled the river with
dams. Why the settlers did not cross on dams seems not to have
been declared.
RATHDRUM: Named after Rathdrum in Ireland.
REXBURG: A corruption. Named for Thomas Ricks.
RIDDLE: For an early family. "There were so many Riddles that
it was riddle-riddle everywhere."
RIGBY : For William Rigby, a Mormon.
412 IDAHO
RIGGINS: For R. L. Riggins, an old-timer.
RIRIE: For a Mormon bishop.
RUPERT: For a reclamation engineer.
ST. ANTHONY: Named for St. Anthony Falls, Minnesota.
ST. MARIES: Named by Father De Smet.
SAMARIA: "Ever since the first ones settled here, and even to
this day, those who come among us are always taken care of so
well that we have always been called The Good Samaritans."
SELWAY: A Nez Perce word meaning stream of easy canoeing.
SHELLEY: Named for an old-timer.
SINKER: A creek so named because settlers used gold nuggets
for sinkers on their fishing lines.
SKELETON BUTTE: The skeleton of Lew Landers was found
there.
SNAKE RIVER: The name Snake was loosely and incorrectly
attached to Bannack, Paiute, and Shoshoni Indians. The origin
of the name is disputed. One says the name means inland; a
priest has declared the Indians were so named because, like
reptiles, they dug food from the earth; and a third says these
Indians ate serpents. A fourth declares that when an Indian
was asked the name of his tribe he made a serpentine move-
ment, intended to suggest not snakes but basket weaving. The
last seems the most probable. The Shoshonis themselves called
the river Yam-pa-pah, the stream where the yampa grows;
though later after the Oregon Trail followed it they called it
Po-og-way, meaning river road.
STITES: For one of the founders.
SWEET: Not intended as raillery, the town was named for an
early settler.
TAKAB: Tah-kawb: Indian for snow.
TARGHEE: From a Bannack chieftain. Correctly spelled Tygee.
TENDOY: For a chieftain of the Lemhis. Unten-doip: he likes
broth. Tendoy was very fond of coagulated blood in boiled meat.
THUNDER MOUNTAIN: Indians called it yag'-gi, meaning
clouds crying.
TICEKSA : Tee-chay'-shak : Indian for top of a tent or house.
TIKURA: Teekoo'-rah: Indian for skeleton of a tent.
TOPONIS: To'-po-nis: Indian for black cherries.
TUNUPA: Too'-nah-pah : Indian for boy.
TYHEE: From Indian tee-hee, meaning like a deer,
USTICK: Named for a doctor.
VICTOR: Named for an old-timer.
WAHA: An Indian word meaning beautiful.
WALLACE: For Colonel W. R. Wallace who established the
townsite.
ORIGINS OF NAMES 413
WAPELLO: For a town in Iowa.
WARDNER: For James Wardner.
WEISER: Wee'-zer: named for a Hudson's Bay trapper.
WILDER: For an author of that name who once tried to write
there.
WINSPER: For an old-timer.
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER I
Bailey, Robert G., The River of No Return, Lewiston, Idaho, 1935.
A history and travelogue containing interesting facts and
legends.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of the Pacific States of North
Ajyierica, San Francisco, 1890. A summary of Idaho from 1862
to 1889, with general accounts of Indians, topography, re-
sources, and development.
Bird, Annie Laurie, Boise, the Peace Valley, Caldwell, Idaho, 1934.
A history of the early days and later progress of the Boise
Valley.
Brosnan, C. J., History of the State of Idaho, New York, 1935.
An elementary textbook.
Brown, Jennie Broughton, Fort Hall on the Oregon Trail, Cald-
well, Idaho, 1932. A trustworthy source of infoi'mation based
largely on letters, narratives, and diaries.
Defenbach, Byron, The State We Live In, Caldwell, Idaho, 1933.
A history of Idaho.
Driggs, B. W., History of the Teton Valley, Caldwell, Idaho, 1926.
A history of Pierre's Hole drawn largely from recollections of
early settlers.
Elliott, Wallace W., and Company, Editors, History of the Idaho
Territory, San Francisco, 1884. Interesting only as a historical
document.
Erwin, Richard P., Indian Rock Writing in Idaho, Twelfth Bien-
nial Report of the State Historical Society, Boise, 1929-30.
French, Hiram T., History of Idaho, Chicago, 1914. 3 volumes.
The first is history, the other two are biographies.
Gregg, Herbert C, Idaho, Gem of the Mountains, St. Paul, 1893.
The official souvenir book of Idaho's exhibit at the World's
Columbian Exposition.
Hailey, John, The History of Idaho, Boise, 1910. A history of
Idaho Territorial days based largely on personal experiences of
the author.
416 IDAHO
Hebard, Grace R., Sacajawea, Glendale, California, 1933. A schol-
arly treatment of the printed and unprinted material relating to
Sacajawea.
HoSMER, James K., Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition,
Chicago, 1904. 2 volumes.
Irving, Washington, The Adventures of Captain Bonneville, New
York, 1868. A romantic account of the explorer.
JUDSON, Katharine B., Myths and Legends of the Pacific North-
west, Chicago, 1910. An interesting source book.
McConnell, Wm. J., Early History of Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho, 1913.
The author's reminiscences.
Meeker, Ezra, Ox Team: or the Old Oregon Trail, 1908. An ac-
count of Meeker's journey over the Trail to mark historic sites.
Parkman, Francis, The Oregon Trail, New York, 1931. Treats
chiefly of Indian life and character.
Rees, John E., The History of Lemhi County. An unpublished
manuscript in the State Historical Society.
, Idaho Chronology, Nomenclature, Bibliog-
raphy, Chicago, 1918. A valuable but very incomplete source.
SCHULTZ, James W., Bird Woman, New York, 1918. Sacajawea's
story is she is supposed to have told it to others.
Smythe, Wm. E., Conquest of Arid America, New York, 1905.
Walgamott, Charles S., Reminiscences of Early Days, Caldwell,
Idaho, 1935.
CHAPTERS II and III
Arnold, R. R., Indian Wars of Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho, 1932.
Hebard, Grace R., Washakie, Cleveland. An account of Indian re-
sistance of invasion of their territory.
McBeth, Kate C, The Nez Perces Since Lewis and Clark, New
York, 1908.
Howard, 0. O., Nez Perce Joseph, Boston, 1881.
See also under Chapter I; and various reports and publications of
the Bureau of American Ethnology (notably the 45th) of the
Smithsonian Institution (notably Bulletin 30).
CHAPTER IV
Eldridge, George H., A Geological Reconnaissance Across Idaho,
Washington, D. C, 1895. Pp. 217-282.
Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology, Pamphlets 10, 12, 27, 40;
and Bulletin 3. U. S. G. S. Bulletins 430, 620, 713, 62, 199, 530,
580, 528, 732, 774.
Stearns, Harold T., Guide to the Craters of the Moon, Caldwell,
Idaho, 1930.
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 417
CHAPTER V
Frye, T. C, Fenis of the Northivest, Portland, Oregon, 1934. In-
formation both scientific and popular.
Haskin, L. L., Wild Flowers of the Pacific Coast, Portland, Oregon,
1934.
HoTTES, A. C, The Book of Trees, New York, 1932. Trees from the
point of view of the horticulturalist.
Keeler, Harriet L., Our Native Trees, New York, 1900. Trust-
worthy and fairly complete.
LONGYEAR, Burton O., Trees and Shrubs of the Rocky Mountain
Region, New York, 1927. A scientific study of Rocky Mountain
flora.
Parsons, Frances T., How to Kno^v Wild Flowers, New York,
1900. A guide to names, haunts, and habits.
Piper, C. V., and Beattie, R. K., Flora of the Northivest Coast,
Pullman, Washington, 1915.
Rogers, Julia E., The Tree Book, New York, 1905. A popular
guide.
Rydberg, P. A., Flora of the Rocky Mountains, New York, 1917.
The standard source.
Saunders, C. F., Western Wild Flowers, New York, 1933. A popu-
lar discussion, limited largely to California.
St. John, Harold, Flora of Idaho. An unpublished manuscript in
the possession of The Caxton Printers, Ltd. The only exhaustive
treatment of Idaho flora.
CHAPTER VI
Bailey, Florence M., Handbook of Birds of the Western United
States, Boston, 1921. A standard source.
Blanchan, Neltje, Birds that Hunt and Are Hunted, New York,
1905. A popular treatment.
Daglish, Eric F., The Life Story of Beasts, New York, 1931. The
habits and peculiarities of the better-known mammals.
Ditmars, Raymond L., The Reptile Book, New York, 1907. A
scientist's popular presentation.
Eliot, Willard A., Birds of the Pacific Coast, New York, 1923.
An account of distribution and habits of 118 species.
Mathews, F. S., Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music, New
York, 1921. Literal transcription of bird song.
Mills, E. A., In Beaver World, Boston, 1913. Besides a study of
the beaver, it contains some data on the trapping era in the
Northwest.
Seton, Ernest T., Lives of Game Animals, New York, 1929. 4
volumes. A popular account.
418 IDAHO
U, S. Bureau of Ornithology and Mammalogy, Bulletin 5. A
Biological Reconnaissance of South Central Idaho. Washing-
ton, D. C, 1891.
CHAPTER IX
GiDLEY, J. W., Hunting Fossils on the Old Oregon Trail, Smithsonian
Institution, pp. 31-6.
, Continuation of the Fossil Horse Round-up,
ibid, 33-44.
Idaho Digest and Blue Book, Caldwell, Idaho, 1935.
LUKENS, Fred E., Idaho Citizen, Caldwell, Idaho, 1925.
Miller, H. H., Democracy in Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho, 1935.
Rose, C. E., Civil Government of Idaho, New York, 1919.
U. S. G. S., Professional Paper No. HO, "Flora of the Latah Forma-
tion," Washington, D. C, 1926.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for
materials used in this book :
K. D. Swan, United States Forest Service, Missoula, Montana, for
pictures titled: Timber; Power Plant at Moyie Falls; Rapid River
Falls; The Lochsa River; Pierce City; the St. Joe River; Coeur
d'Alene National Forest; The Mullan Tree; Priest River Coun-
try; Priest Lake; Grave of an Old-timer; the Old Hotel at Flor-
ence; Typical National Forest Lookout.
BiSBEE Studio, Twin Falls, Idaho, for pictures titled: Snake River
Gorge: the Footprints of Time; Idaho's Big Potatoes; Sego
Lily: Utah State Flower; A Row of Onions; Twin Falls; Icicle
Cove; Snowbank Falls at Blue Lakes; Perrine Coulee; Balanced
Rock; Phantom Walls; Malad Gorge; Salmon Dam.
Johnson and Son, Boise, Idaho, for pictures titled: White Bark
Pine: Two Grotesques; Hunting is Good in Idaho; The Limit:
Cutthroat and Rainbow; Snake River Sturgeon; Wild Geese
and Ducks; A Boise Sky; A View in Boise; A Profile in Sucker
Creek; Alice Lake; Imogene Lake; Payette Lake; The Salmon
River from the North-and-South Highway; Journey's End; A
Monument on Monumental Creek; Frontispiece: Idaho State
Flag ; Pettit Lake ; Government Pack String on the Selway River.
M. S. Benedict, Forest Supervisor, Caribou National Forest, Mont-
pelier, Idaho, for pictures titled: Roaring Lake; Panning for
Gold; Twin Falls-Jerome Bridge; Mount Borah; Crystal Falls
Cave: Crystal Falls; Crystal Falls Cave: a backdrop; Crystal
Falls Cave: a corridor; Crystal Falls Cave: a ceiling; Corridor
of the Kings; Cavern of the Idols; The Bride; Shoshone Falls;
Galena Summit; Dog Team on Wood River.
Robert Jewell, Boise, Idaho, for pictures titled : Junction of Middle
Fork and Main Salmon; Submerged Town of Roosevelt.
Lewis Longteig, Boise, Idaho, for picture titled: White Pine and
Cedar.
420 IDAHO
E. L. Fuller, Boise, Idaho, for picture titled: Deer on Moore Creek.
Noel Studio, Lewiston, Idaho, for picture titled: Elk in Winter.
Charles J. Belden, Pitchfork, Wyoming, for picture titled: Ante-
lope in Flight.
Idaho State Chamber of Commerce for picture titled: Mountain
Goat.
Shipler, Boise, Idaho, for picture titled: Thousand Springs.
United States Forest Service, for pictures titled : Matured Yellow
Pine; Sheep.
Standar's Studio, Idaho Falls, Idaho, for pictures titled: Jim
Marshall; three studies of Fort Hall Indians; Balsam and
Lupine; Along the Salmon River.
D. F. Davis, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Salt Lake City,
Utah, for picture titled : Upper Mesa Falls.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, for
picture titled: A Lava Field Near the Craters of the Moon.
Intermountain Aerial Surveys, Boise, Idaho, for pictures titled:
Looking Northeast Tov^'ard Atlanta from Arrowrock Dam; An
Aerial View of Boise.
John W. Graham, Spokane, Washington, for pictures titled : Win-
chester Hill ; Surf-riding on Lake Coeur d' Alene ; Hayden Lake ;
Spirit Lake; Beauty Bay, Lake Coeur d'Alene; Sunset on Lake
Coeur d'Alene; Lake Pend d'Oreille.
The 15th Photo Section, Air Corps, U. S. Army, for picture titled:
Teton Peaks.
Grove Studio, Boise, Idaho, for pictures titled: Arrowrock Dam;
South Fork of Payette River.
H. C. Shellw^orth, Southern Idaho Timber Protective Association,
Boise, Idaho, for pictures titled: Cougar Dave and His Dogs;
Mountain Goat Country.
Harold T. Stearns, U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C, for
pictures titled : Indian Tunnel : Entrance — Craters of the Moon ;
Lava Flow — Craters of the Moon ; Impression of Charred Log in
Lava — Craters of the Moon.
Rinker's Studio, Kellogg, Idaho, for picture titled: The Sunshine
Mine.
W. M. Irvine, Seattle, Washington, for picture titled: Syringa:
Idaho State Flower.
Ted Cramer, Boise, Idaho, for pictures titled: The Outlet of Red-
fish Lake ; Stanley Lake ; Trail Creek near Ketchum.
Hill Studio, Gooding, Idaho, for picture titled: Gooding City of
Rocks.
Hodgins, Moscow, Idaho, for pictures titled: A Campus View; The
Lewiston Hill.
Frank Palmer, Spokane, Washington, for picture titled: Forest
Trail from Hayden Lake to North Fork.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 421
Dr. a. E. Weaver, Boise, Idaho, for pictures titled: Map of the
United States; Historic Table Rock, Bruneau Canyon; Middle
Fork of Salmon River; Packing In.
Lyman Marden, U. S. Department of the Interior, for picture
titled: Natural Bridge Near Arco.
National Park Service, U. S. Department of the Interior, for
pictures titled: Aspen; Tag Alder; Mountain Ash; Elderberry;
Kinnikinnick.
Wildlife Division, National Park Service, San Francisco, Cali-
fornia, for pictures titled : Indian Paintbrush ; Marsh Marigold ;
Colorado Blue Columbine.
Burns Studio, Lewiston, Idaho, for picture titled: A Lettuce
Patch.
Burns, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, for pictures titled: Trainload of Logs;
Sluicing Logs; U S 95 Through the Pines of Northern Idaho;
Fernan Lake and Beyond.
The 116th Photo Section, 41st Division Aviation, Washington
National Guard, for pictures titled : Saw^tooth Mountains West
of Stanley; Bayview on Lake Pend d'Oreille; Lew^iston; The
Seven Devils; The Sawtooth Mountains East of Stanley; Coeur
d'Alene; Chimney Rock near Priest Lake.
Wesley Andrev^^s, Portland, Oregon, for pictures titled: Rocky
Mountain Sheep: Beginning of a Battle; Elk: Finish of a
Fight; Monoliths at Sunset and Volcanic Crater — Craters of the
Moon; Cave Mouth and Formation of Cave Interior — Craters of
the Moon; Indian Tunnel Corridor — Craters of the Moon.
Rainier National Park Company, Tacoma, Washington, for pic-
tures titled : Bear up a Tree ; Come on Down !
J. F. Anderson, Lewiston, Idaho, for pictures titled: White Pine
Lumber; through the Clearwater National Forest; Marble
Creek.
INDEX
A
Academy of the Immaculate
Heart 188
Agate 175
Agriculture 165, 177
Ahsahka 319
Albion 236
Alder, white (tag) 99
Alice Lake (see Lakes)
Alpine beauty 109
Alturas Lake (see Lakes)
American Falls 232
American Falls Dam (see
Dams)
American Falls Reservoir
(see Reservoirs)
American Fur Company ....20, 24
Amethyst 176
Amsterdam 290
Anderson Mountain Look-
out (see Lookouts)
Antelope, description 123
number 123
range 155
Arco 266
Arrowhead 112
Arrowrock Dam (see Dams)
Arrowrock Reservoir (see
Reservoirs)
Ash, Rocky Mountain 98
Ashley, General William .... 21
Ashton 201
Ashton dog derby 201
Aspen, quaking 98
Astor, John Jacob 20
Athol 303
Atlanta 257
Auger Falls (see Falls)
B
Badger 126
Balanced Rock 244
Bald Mountain Resort 285
Ballard, David W 35
Balsamroot 116
Baneberry 101
Basque, colony 187
Batholith, Idaho 76
Bay Horse 389
Bavs, Beauty 325
Blue Creek 335
Carlin 325
Indian 341
Kalispell 342
Luby 342
Reeder 342
Squaw 325
Turner 325
Wolf Lodge 335
Bear, black, description 120
grizzly, description 119
range 155
Bearberry 101
Bear Grass 115
Bear Lake (see Lakes)
Bear Lake Hot Springs (see
Hot Springs)
Bear Lake Valley (see
Valleys)
Beartrap Lookout (see
Lookouts)
Bear River (see Rivers)
Beauty Bay (see Bays)
Beaver 124
Beavertail Point 225
Bechler River (see Rivers)
Bellevue 285
424
I D A H
Benewah Lake (see Lakes)
Big Butte (see Buttes)
Big Cinder Butte (see
Buttes)
Big Creek Hot Springs (see
Hot Springs)
Big Lost River (see Rivers)
Big Redfish Lake (see Lakes)
Big Springs Lookout (see
Lookouts)
Big Springs 199
Inn 199
Lookout 199
Bilberry, dwarf 100
Birch, red 99
Bittern 139
Blackbird 143
Black Canyon Dam (see
Dams)
Blackfoot 211
Blackfoot Reservoir (see
Reservoirs)
Black Bear Inn 314
Black Lake (see Lakes)
Black Top Butte (see Buttes)
Bliss 247
Bloodstone 175
Bloomington Lake (see
Lakes)
Blow Hole 244
Bluebird 146, 147
Blue Creek Bay (see Bays)
Blue Lakes (see Lakes)
Bluenose Lookout (see
Lookouts)
Boa, rubber 129
Bobcat 121
Bobolink 149
Boise 253
Boise Basin 32, 34, 385
Boise Junior College (see
Colleges)
Boise River (see Rivers)
Boise Valley (see Valleys)
Bonanza 281, 389
Bonners Ferry 301
Bonneville, Captain B. L. E. 23
Borah, W. E 37,254
Bostetter Campground (see
Campgrounds)
Boulder Peak (see Peaks)
Box Canyon (see Canyons)
Boyles Ranch 282
Bozanta Tavern 304
Bracken 105
Brayman, Governor 34
Bridger, Jim 23
Bridges, Hansen 239
Manning 313
Natural (Arco) 270
Natural (Jarbridge) 250
Sandpoint 302
Taylor Toll 209
Twin Falls-Jerome 289
Brundage Lookout (see
Lookouts)
Bruneau 249
Bruneau Canyon (see Can-
yons)
Bruneau River (see Rivers)
Brutality, white instance .... 24
Buckbean 112
Buckbrush 114
Buffalo Campgrounds (see
Campgrounds)
Buffalo Horn 48
Buhl 244
Bungalow 320
Bunker Hill and Sullivan
Mine (see Mines)
Burgdorf 294
Burgdorf Hot Springs (see
Hot Springs)
Buried treasures 365-375
Burke 332
Burley 236
Burley Wind Cave (see
Caves)
Burning bush 103
Buttercup, western 107
Buttes, Big 265
Big Cinder 269
Black Top 269
Lizard 261
Menan 206
Middle 265
Twin 265
Buzzard (see vulture)
C
Cabinet Gorge (see Gorges)
Cache National Forest 218
Caldwell 262
Camas, blue 107
Camas Prairie 48, 49
Cambridge 317
Campgrounds, Bostetter 238
Buffalo 200
Cold Springs 312
Cougar Point 279
Evergreen 315
Golden Gate 295
INDEX
425
Meadow Creek 323
Pentstemon 292
Pettit 292
Sheep Springs 312
Smoky 314
Spring Creek 318
Torrev's 281
Twin Creek 274
Canyons, Box 316
Bruneau 249
Cronks 280
Emigration 214
Fourth of July 334
Grand (Seven Devils). .89, 316
Grand View 272
Jump Creek 261
St. Charles 219
Spar 272
Sucker Creek 262
White Bird 29
Cape Horn 81
Cape Horn Ranch 283
Carey 270
Carey Act 37
Caribou National Forest .... 218
Carlin Bay (see Bays)
Cascade 296
Castle Rocks 249
Cataldo 334
Cataldo Mission (see Mis-
sions)
Cave Falls (see Falls)
Caves, Burlev Wind 239
Clay ' 239
Crystal Falls 203
Formation 224
Higby 252
Hot 290
Ice 226
Kuna 259
Minnetonka 219
Shoshone Ice 286
Sunbear 269
Cedar, Giant Arborvitae 94
ground 104
Rocky Mountain red 94
Centerville 385
Chamberlain Basin 355
Challis 280
Champagne Spring 223
Chatcolet Lake (see Lakes)
Cherokee Bob 31
Chickadee 144
Chilcoot Pass (see Passes)
Chilly 271
Chimney Rock 341
Chinese (see Racial Ele-
ments)
Chipmunk 128
Chokecherry 99
Clark Fork 338
Clark, William 19,41
Clark Fork River (see
Rivers)
Clarkia Ill, 328
Clarkston 308
Clay Cave (see Caves)
Clavton 272, 281, 389
Clear Lake (see Lakes)
Clearwater National Forest 319
Clearwater River (see Rivers)
Cleft 252
Cleveland Lake (see Lakes)
Cocolalla 302
Coeur d'Alene Lake (see
Lakes)
Cold Springs Campground
(see Campgrounds)
Colleges, Boise Junior 190
Coeur d'Alene Junior 190
Gooding 190
Northwest Nazarene 190
of Idaho 190,262
Ricks (Rexburg) 190
Columbine 107
Colville Indian Reservation.. 46
Conda 224
Conner, Alexander H 34
Coolin 340
Coolwater Lookout (see
Lookouts)
Connor, Col. P. E 45
Coot 141
Coral root 108
Corbin 303
Cormorant 137
Coston Cabin 255
Cottonwood 98
Coeur d'Alene 304
Coeur d'Alene Indian Reser-
vation 51
Coeur d'Alene Junior Col-
lege (see Colleges)
Coeur d'Alene Lake 83, 325
Coeur d'Alene Mission 43
Coeur d'Alene River (see
Rivers)
Cougar, description 120
Cougar Point Campground
(see Campgrounds)
Council 315
Cowbird 138
426
IDAHO
Crabtree Museum 240
Cranberry 102
Crane 138
Crane Creek Reservoir (see
Reservoirs)
Crater Rings 252
Craters of the Moon Na-
tional Monument 267 ff.
Creeper 145
Cronks Canyon (see Can-
yons)
Crook, General ...., 34
Crooked River (see Rivers)
Crystal 389
Crystal Falls Cave (see
Caves)
Crystal Lake (see Lakes)
Cuckoo 148
Culdesac 310
Cuprum 316
Currant 102
Custer 389
D
Dago Peak (see Peaks)
Dams, American Falls 232
Arrowrock 257
Black Canyon 259
Deadwood 295
Milner 86, 238
Minidoka 86, 235
Oakley 238
Post Falls 336
Salmon 291
Daisy, mountain 107
Darling Lake (see Lakes)
Darrow, Clarence 37, 254
Deadwood Dam (see Dams)
Deadwood Reservoir (see
Reservoirs)
Declo 236
Deer, description 123
number 123
range 154
Deer Lake (see Lakes)
DeLamar 384
De Smet 26, 306
Devil's club 101
Devils Kitchen (Tour 3,
Sec. a) 226
Devils Kitchen (Tour 3,
Sec. b) 245
Dewey 383
Dewey, Col. W. H 383
Dickey 272
Dickey Peak (see Peaks)
Dogwood, red-osier 101, 103
Downey 213
Dover 340
Driggs 205
Dry Diggins Lookout (see
Lookouts)
Dubois 216
Ducks, kind and range 156-58
Duck Lake (see Lakes)
Duck Valley Indian Reser-
vation 46, 51
Dunes, Sand 202
E
Eagle 133
Eagle City 333, 380
Eagle Rock 209
Eastport 300
Education, status 188-90
Egret 142
Elderberry 101
Elk City 323
Elk, description 122
number 123
range 154
Emerald Lake (see Lakes)
Emida 329
Emigrant Rock 235
Emigration Canyon (see
Canyons)
Emmett 259
Evergreen Campground (see
Campgrounds)
Experiment Station, Priest
River 341
Experiment Station, U. S.
Sheep 217
Exports 177
Fairy bell 113
Fairy slipper 109
Falcon (see hawk)
Falls, Auger 244
Cave 201
Lady Face 283
Mesa 200-01
Moyie 301
Perrine Coulee 242
Selway 322
Shoshone 86, 242
Twin 242
Farms, experimental 189
Fernan Lake (see Lakes)
Ferns 104-05
INDEX
427
Festival, Cherry Blossom....
259,308
Filer 244
Filipino (see Racial ele-
ments)
Finch 148
Fir, Alpine 97
balsam 96
Douglas 93
white 96, 97
Fireweed 113
Fish, enemies 125, 126
kinds 158-62
range 158-62
Fish Haven 222
Fish Lake (see Lakes)
Fleabane 110
Flicker 144
Florence 31, 312
Flycatcher 144
Formation Cave (see Caves)
Forney 278
Fort Boise 20,45
Fort Hall 20, 21, 24, 51, 212
Fort Hall Indian Reserva-
tion 46,51
Fort Henry 21,204
Four S Ranch 224
Fourth of July Canyon (see
Canyons)
Franklin 25, 214
Freezeout Hill (See Hills)
French Creek Hill (see
Hills)
Fruitland 263
G
Galena Summit 80,284
Game laws 152
Garden of Yesterday 241
Garden Valley (see Valleys)
Garnet 176
Gaskill Botanical Garden.... 241
Geese 158
Gems 175-76
Gentian 108
Ghost towns 379-90
Gibbons Pass (see Passes)
Gibbonsville 274
Gilbert Hill (see Hills)
Glassford Peak (see Peaks)
Goat, mountain, description 124
number 124
range 155
Golden Gate Campground
(see Campgrounds)
Goldenrod 113
Goldfinch 149
Gooding 288
Gooding City of Rocks 288
Gooding College (see Col-
leges)
Gopher 127
Gopher snake 130
Gooseberry 103
Goose Creek Reservoir (see
Reservoirs)
Goose Lake (see Lakes)
Gorges, Cabinet 337
Malad 248
Pass Creek 270
Royal 280
Seven Devils (Grand Can-
yon) 316
Williams Creek 279
Wood River 286
Goulder, W. A 26
Grace, hydroelectric plant.. 226
Grand Canyon (see Can-
yons)
Grandjean Hot Springs (see
Hot Springs)
Grand View Canyon (see
Canyons)
Grandview Point 200
Grangeville 311
Granite 302
Granite Lake (see Lakes)
Grape, Oregon 113
Grass, blue-eyed 108
Grays Lake (see Lakes)
Greenleaf Academy 188
Grebe 139
Grosbeak 146
Groundsel, morning 109
Grouse 155
Grouseberry 100
Gull 142
H
Hackberry 102
Hagerman 246
Hagerman Valley (see Val-
leys)
Hailey 285
Hansen 239
Hansen Bridge (see Bridges)
Harebell 113
Harpster 322
Harrison 326
Harrison Flats 327
Harrison Lake (see Lakes)
428
IDAHO
Harvard 330
Hauser Lake (see Lakes)
Ha-Wah-Na Hot Springs
(see Hot Springs)
Hawk, kinds 134-35
Hawley, James H 34
Hawthorn 99
Hayden Lake (see Lakes)
Hazard Lake (see Lakes)
Headquarters 320
Heath 317
Heather 103
Hecla Mine (see Mines)
He Devil Peak (see Peaks)
Heise Hot Springs (see Hot
Springs)
Hellebore 112
Hell's Half Acre 210
Hell Roaring Lake (see
Lakes)
Hemlock 97
Henry 225
Henrys Lake (see Lakes)
Henry, Major Andrew 21
Heron 138
Heyburn State Park 305
Hidden Lake (see Lakes)
Higby Cave (see Caves)
Highways, State
State 3 337
State 7 319,328
State 9 309,319,322
State 11 319
State 14 323
State 15 258,293
State 17 298
State 19 262
State 22 207, 248, 249, 267
State 23 288
State 24 248, 288
State 27 211,265
State 28 217,278
State 29 266
State 33 205
State 34 224, 226
State 35 219
State 36 213
State 44 258, 293
State 45 260
State 47 201
Highways, U S
U S 2 300
U S 10 331
U S 30 218
U S 30 S 236
U S 91 210, 216
U S 93 273
U S 95 300, 337
U S 95 Alt 325
U S 191 197
Hills, Culdesac 310
Freezeout 259
French Creek 313
Gilbert 321
Lewiston 307
Timmerman 285
White Bird 312
Hollister 290
Hollyhock Ill
Hooded tresses 108
Hoodoo Lake (see Lakes)
Hoodoo Valley (see Valleys)
Hooper Spring 223
Hope 339
Horse Shoe Bend 298
Horsetail, swamp 104
Hot Cave (see Caves)
Hot Creek 250
Hot Springs, Bear Lake 222
Big Creek 276
Burgdorf 294
Grandjean 258
Ha-Wah-Na 227
Heise - 207
Indian 233
Lava 226
Lidy 217
Magic 292
Meadows Valley 314
Mud Bath 227
Nah Supah 290
Pincock 205
Red River 323
Riggins 313
Royston 259
Howard, General 30, 47, 49
Huckleberry 100
Hudlow Mountain Lookout
(see Lookouts)
Hudson's Bay Company ....19, 20
Hummingbird 147
Hunting, areas 154 ff.
Hyacinth HO
I
142
Ibis
Ice Cave (see Caves)
Idaho, batholith 76
climate "74
from the air 73 ff.
game department 153
game laws 152
INDEX
429
geology 77
name first used 409
origin 408
original boundaries 73
racial elements 185-87
territory 35
topography 74 ff.
university 188
Idaho City 258, 385-88
Idaho Falls 208
Idaho Hotel 33, 383
Imogene Lake (see Lakes)
Imports 178
Independence Lake (see
Lakes)
Indian Bathtub 250
Indian Bay (see Bays)
Indian Pipe 112
Indian Springs (see Hot
Springs)
Indian, artifacts 63 ff.
celebrations 67
legends 68 ff.
music 66
pictograph, instance 260
tribes 41-52, 57-70
Indian Reorganization Act.. 52
Information, general for
tourists 194
Inkom 228
Irving, Washington 22
Island Park (Tour 1) 200
Island Park (Tour 5) 278
J
Jackson Hole 207
Jasper 175
Jay 148
Jerome 289
Joseph, Chief 29-31, 46-48
Joseph, Old Chief 44, 46
Julia Davis Park 255
Jump Creek Canyon (see
Canyons)
Junco (see snowbird)
Juniper, mountain 94
K
Kalispel House (Kully-
spell) 19, 338
Kalispell Bay (see Bays)
Kamiah 321
Kellogg 333
Kelso Lake (see Lakes)
Ketchum 284
Kildeer (see plover)
Killarney Lake (see Lakes)
Kingfisher 137
Kingbird 147
King Hill 248
King Hill reclamation proj-
ect 37
Kinglet 146
Kingston 380
Kinnikinnick 101
Kinport Peak 229
Knox 295
Kooskia 322
Kootenai River (see Rivers)
Kuna Cave (see Caves)
Kutenai Public Domain 51
L
Lady Face Falls (see Falls)
Lakes, Alice 284
Alturas 80
Bear 221
Benewah 305
Black 316, 326
Bloomington 219
Blue 242, 326
Chatcolet 305
Clear 245
Cleveland 236
Cocolalla 302
Coeur d'Alene 83, 325
Crystal 328
Darling 338
Deer 323
Duck 296
Emerald 316
Fernan 335
Fish 323
Granite 302
Goose 293
Grays 211, 225
Harrison 341
Hauser 336
Hayden 304
Hazard 293
Hell Roaring 284
Henrys 198
Hidden 305, 326
Hoodoo 303
Imogene 283
Independence 238
Kelso 302
Killarney 326
Lowell 261
Lye 247
Market 217
Mud 217
430
IDAHO
Payette 294, 296, 354
Pend d'Oreille..20, 83, 302, 339
Priest 340
Rainbow 248, 323
Redfish, Big 283
Redfish, Little 283
Roosevelt 355
Rose 326
Round 305
Ruby 323
Spirit 303
Stanley 282
Swan 326
Thompson 326
Toxaway 284
Trinity 249
Twin 284, 303
Walsh 339
Warm 295
Wild Horse 323
Yellow Belly 284
Lakota Resort 222
Land 165
Landmark 295
Lapwai 310
Lapwai Creek 25
Lapwai, Fort 47
Lapwai Indian Reserva-
tion 46, 48, 51
Larch 93, 97
Larkspur 107
Laurel, mountain 97
Lava Hot Springs (see Hot
Springs)
Lavas, The 210
Leadore 278
Lee, Jason 24
Leesburg 277, 278
Lemhi, Fort 278
Lemhi, Valley 278
Lemhi Indian Reservation. .46, 50
Lewis and Clark Expedi-
tion ..19,41
Lewis, Meriwether 19, 41
Lewiston 25, 87, 308
Lewiston Hill (see Hills)
Lewiston Orchards 308
Lidy Hot Springs (see Hot
Springs)
Lily, kinds Ill, 114-15
Lily of the valley 108
Lincoln 209
Little Lost River (see
Rivers)
Little Redfish Lake (see
Lakes)
Livestock, kinds 168
Liza, Manuel 21
Lizard Butte (see Buttes)
Lizard, kinds 131
Lochsa River (see Rivers)
Logan, Utah 215
Lolo Trail 47,320
Long Valley (see Valleys)
Long Tom Lookout (see
Lookouts)
Looking Glass Lookout (see
Lookouts)
Lookouts, Anderson Moun-
tain 273
Beartrap 276
Big Springs 199
Bluenose 276
Brundage 293
Coolwater 322
Dry Diggins 314
Hudlow Mountain 304
Long Tom 276
Looking Glass 341
Marble Creek 323
Oreana 276
Packer John 297
Roman Nose 339
Shafer Butte 258
Lookout Pass (see Passes)
Loon 139
Lost River Sinks 266
Lost Valley Reservoir (see
Reservoirs)
Lowell 322
Lowell Lake (see Lakes)
Luby Bay (see Bays)
Lye Lake (see Lakes)
Lyon, Caleb 34
M
Mackay 271
Mack's Inn 199
Magic Hot Springs (see Hot
Springs)
Magic Lake Reservoir (see
Reservoirs)
Malad City 213
Malad Gorge (see Gorges)
Malad River (see Rivers)
Mammoth Soda Spring 223
Manning Bridge (see
Bridges)
Maple, mountain 98
Marble Creek 328
Marble Creek Lookout (see
Lookouts)
INDEX
431
Market Lake (see Lakes)
Marion More tragedy 33
Marston, Gilman 34
Martensia 109
Martin's Ranch 267
Massacre Rocks 233
Massacre, Whitman 27
Mavfield 252
McCall 296
McLoughlin, John 20, 260
Meader trout farm 230
Meadow Creek Campground
(see Campgrounds)
Meadow lark 150
Meadows Valley Hot Springs
(see Hot Springs)
Menan Butte (see Buttes)
Meridian 259
Mesa 317
Mesa Falls (see Falls)
Meyers Cove 279
Middle Butte (see Buttes)
Middle Fork of Clearwater
(see Rivers)
Milner 238
Milner Dam (see Dams)
Minerals, kinds 171
range 172-77
Miners, history 31 ff.
Miners' lettuce 114
Mines. Bunker Hill and
Sullivan 333
Hecla 333
Morning 332
Sunshine 333
Minidoka Dam (see Dams)
Minidoka Reclamation
Project 37
Minidoka National Forest.. 236
Mink 126
Minnetonka Cave (see Caves)
Missions, Cataldo 334
Spalding Log Cabin 310
Whitman 25
Missouri Fur Company 21
Mockingbird 149
Mole 128
Monkey flower Ill
Montpelier 219
Moose, description 122
range 154
Moose City 380
Mormons 25, 27
Morning Mine (see Mines)
Moscow 306
Moss 104
Mount, Borah 80, 272
Hyndman 80
Idaho 381
Independence 238
Sherman 224
Mountain goat 124, 155
Mountain Home 248
Mountain lion (see cougar)
Moyie Falls (see Falls)
Moyie River (see Rivers)
Mud Bath Hot Springs (see
Hot Springs)
Mud Lake (see Lakes)
Mullan 332
Mullan Tree 334
Muskrat 125
N
Nah Supah Hot Springs (see
Hot Springs)
Nampa 260
Nampuh, Chief 17,260
Natural bridge, Arco (see
Bridges)
Natural bridge, Jarbridge
(see Bridges)
Negro (see Racial Elements)
New Meadows 315
New Plymouth 263
Nezperce 321
Nez Perce War 48
Nicholia 381
Nordman 340
North Fork 275
North Fork of Snake River
(see Rivers)
North West Company 20
Northern Pacific railroad.... 36
Northwest Nazarene Acad-
emy 188
Northwest Nazarene Col-
lege (see Colleges)
Nutcracker 145
Nuthatch 145
Oakley 236
Oakley Dam (see Dams)
O'Farrell Cabin 255
Ohio Match Company 336
Old Maid's hair 116
Onyx 176
Opal 176
Orchard 252
Orchards, Lewiston 308
Mesa 317
432
IDAHO
Orchid, phantom 108
Oreana Lookout (see Look-
outs)
Origins of names 405-13
Oriole 148
Orofino 319
Oro Grande 380
Otter 125
Our Lady of Lourdes
Academy 188
Ouzel 146
Owl, kinds 135-37
Owl Clover 116
Owyhee County ....84-86, 121, 385
P
Pacific Company 20
Pack rat 128
Packer John Lookout (see
Lookouts)
Pahsimeroi Valley (see Val-
leys)
Paintbrush 113
Paleontology 190-92, 246
Palouse country 28
Palouse River (see Rivers)
Panhandle 82
Paradise Valley (see Val-
leys)
Parker, Samuel 24,26
Paris 219
Passes, Chilcoot 295
Gibbons 273
Lookout 331
Targhee 197
Pass Creek Gorge (see
Gorges)
Payette 263
Payette Lakes (see Lakes)
Peaks, Boulder 284
Dago 333
Dickey 272
Glassford 284
He De\il 76
Rainbow 295
Sawtelle 198
Seven Devils 89, 316
Wildcat 267
Pearly everlasting 114
Pelican 138
Pend d'Oreille Lake (see
Lakes)
Pentstemon 107
Pentstemon Campground
(see Campgrounds)
Perrine Coulee Falls (see
Falls)
Perrine Museum 241
Perrine Ranch 241
Perry, Capt 29
Pettit Campground (see
Campgrounds)
Phalarope 140
Phantom Walls 244
Pheasant, Chinese 155
Phosphates 222
Pictographs, Indian 260
Pierce 320, 381
Pierre's Hole 21,205
Pincock Hot Springs (see
Hot Springs)
Pine, kinds 94,95
Pineview 258
Placerville 385
Plantain 112
Plover 141
Plummer 31, 305
Pocatello 213, 228
Pollock 314
Pond's Lodge 200
Population, elements 185-87
Poplar 207
Porcupine 121
Portneuf River (see Rivers)
Post Falls 336
Post Falls Dam (see Dams)
Potatoes 78
Potlatch 330
Potlatch Forests, Inc 308
Potlatch River (see Rivers)
Powder River (see Rivers)
Preston 214
Price's Resort 249
Prickly Pear 116
Priest Lake (see Lakes)
Priest River (see Rivers)
Priest River Experiment
Station 341
Primitive Area, boundaries.. 345
entrances 350-53
facilities 347
natural phenomena 347
typical expedition 353 ff.
tonography 345
wild life 348
Pussytoes 114
Q
Quartsburg 385
Quail 142, 156
R
Rabbits 129
Racial elements 185-87
INDEX
433
Rail 140
Rainbow Lake (see Lakes)
Rainbow Peak (see Peaks)
Ranch, 4 S 224
Rathdrum 303
Rattlesnake, kinds 130
Ravalli, Father 334
Raven 146
Reclamation 166
Reclamation Act of 1902 37
Redstart 147
Red River Hot Springs
(see Hot Springs)
Red River (see Rivers)
Reeder Bay (see Bays)
Reservations, Indian 51-52
Reservoirs, American
Falls 86, 232
Arrowrock 257
Blackfoot 224
Crane Creek 317
Deadwood 295
Goose Creek 238
Lost Valley 315
Magic Lake 286
Resources, natural 165 ff.
Rexburg 206
Rhododendron 110
Richfield 270
Ricks College, Rexburg (see
Colleges)
Rigby 206
Riggins 313
Riggins Hot Springs (see
Hot Springs)
Ririe 207
Rivers, Bear 222
Bechler 201
Big Lost 77
Boise 253, 262
Bruneau 85
Clark Fork 83, 337
Clearwater 30, 321
Clearwater, Middle Fork.. 322
Coeur d'Alene 83, 331, 332
Crooked 323
Kootenai 83, 301
Little Lost 77
Lochsa 83, 322
Malad 246
Moyie 301
Palouse 83
Potlatch 83
Portneuf 227
Powder 23
Priest 340
Red 323
Salmon 34, 77, 80, 275
Selwav 322
Snake 20, 75, 76, 79, 230 ff.
Snake, North Fork 199
Spokane 83, 336
St. Joe 83, 328
St. Maries 83, 328
Warm 202
Wood 75
Robbers Roost (Tour 3,
Sec. a) 225
Robbers Roost 366
Roberts 217
Robin 143
Robinson Bar Ranch 281
Rockchip 130
'Rockchuck 129
Rocky Mountain Club 283
Rogerson 291
Roman Nose Lookout (see
Lookouts)
Roosevelt 295, 346, 388
Roosevelt Lake (see Lakes)
Rose Lake (see Lakes)
Round Lake (see Lakes)
Royal Gorge (see Gorges)
Royston Hot Springs (see
Hot Springs)
Round Valley (see Valleys)
Ruby 176
Ruby City 381
Ruby Lake (see Lakes)
Running pine 104
Running Springs Ranch 283
Rupert 235
Sacajawea 19, 41
Sack's Cabin 199
Sacred Heart Mission 306
Sage hen 155
Sager family 251
Salmonberry 102
Salmon City 277
Salmon Dam (see Dams)
Salmon, kinds 161-62
Salmon National Forest.. . .274 ff.
Salmon River, description
(see Rivers)
Sand Dunes 202
Sandpiper 141
Sandpoint 302, 340
Sandpoint Bridge (see
Bridges)
Santa Creek 328
434
IDAHO
Sapphires 176
Sapsucker 145
Sawtelle Peak (see Peaks)
Sawtooth City 380
Sawtooth Mountains 283
School, for deaf and blind... 188
Industrial Training 188
Normal 188
Scouring brush 104
Sego, peacock 108
Selway Falls (see Falls)
Selway River (see Rivers)
Serviceberry 99
Settler's Tunnel 250
Seven Devils Gorge (see
Gorges)
Seven Devils Peak (see
Shafer Butte 258
Shafer Butte Lookout (see
Lookouts)
Sheepeaters' War 49
Sheep, mountain 124, 155
Sheep Rock 316
Sheep Springs Campgi'ound
(see Campgrounds)
Shelley 210
Shootingstar 114
Shoshone 287
Shoshone Falls (see Falls)
Shoshone Ice Caves (see
Caves)
Shoup 276
Shower Bath Springs 282
Shrew 128
Shrike 137
Silent City of Rocks 236
Silver City 84, 261, 381
Sinks, Lost River 266
Siskin, pine 145
Skunk 127
Skunk cabbage 112
Smiths Ferry 296
Smoky Campground (see
Campgrounds)
Snake River (see Rivers)
Snake River Valley (see
Valleys)
Snakes 130-31
Snipe 141
Snowberger Botanical Gar-
dens 263
Snowberry 102
Snowbird 144
Snowbunting 144
Soda Mound 224
Soda Point 226
Soda Springs 223
Solitaire 149
Solomon's seal 109
Sorrel, mountain 108
Southard, Lydia 290
Spalding 309
Spalding, Rev. H. H 25, 26, 42
Spalding Mission (see Mis-
sions)
Spar Canyon (see Canyons)
Sparrows 143
Spencer 216
Spirit Lake (see Lakes)
Spokane River (see Rivers)
Spring Creek Campground
(see Campgrounds)
Springtown 240, 379
Spruce, Engelmann 96
Blue 96
Spud Day (Shelley) 210
Squaw Bay (see Bays)
Squirrel 128
Stampede Park 224
Stanley 282
Stanley Basin 81
Stanley Lake (see Lakes)
Starkey 315
State University 306
Steamboat Spring 223
Steptoe, CoL E. J 28
Steunenberg Monument 254
Stibnite 294
Stilt 141
Stites 323
St. Anthony 202
St. Charles Canyon (see
Canyons)
St. Gertrude's High School.. 188
St. Joe National Forest 329
St. Joe River (see Rivers)
St. Maries 327
St. Maries River (see Rivers)
St. Teresa's Academy 188
Sucker Creek Canyon (see
Canyons)
Sunbear Cave (see Caves)
Sunshine Mine (see Mines)
Swallows 143
Swans 142
Swan Lake (see Lakes)
Swan Valley (see Valleys)
Syringa 106
T
Table Rock 257
Tall tales 393-402
Tanager 146
INDEX
435
Targhee Pass (see Passes)
Taylor Toll Bridge (see
Bridges)
Tendoy, Chief 51, 278
Tern 140
Teton Basin 21, 205
Teton Peaks 84, 200, 202
Thimbleberry 100
Thompson, David 19,338,339
Thompson Lake (see Lakes)
Thompson Trading Post 338
Thousand Springs 245
Thrasher 150
Three Island Ford 248
Thrush 150
Thunder Mountain Area. .295, 388
Tiger lily Ill
Timber 169-71
Timmerman Hill (see Hills)
Too-lah 29
Torrey's Campground (see
Campgrounds)
Toxaway Lake (see Lakes)
Transportation 183-85
Trapping, history 19 ff.
Trenner Memorial Park 232
Trillium Ill
Trinity Lakes (see Lakes)
Trude 200
Tulips, Mariposa 115
Turner Bay (see Bays)
Twinberry 101
Twin Buttes (see Buttes)
Twin Creek Campground
(see Campgrounds)
Twin Falls 86,240
Twin Falls (see Falls)
Twin Falls-Jerome Bridge
(see Bridges)
Twinflower 104
Twin Lakes (see Lakes)
Twisted-stalk 112
U
Umbrella plant Ill
Union Pacific railroad 36, 185
United States Sheep Experi-
ment Station 217
University of Idaho 188
Ursuline Academy 188
V
Vale 128
Valleys, Bear Lake 218
Boise 82, 253
Garden 297, 298
Hoodoo 303
Hagerman 245
Long 297
Pahsimeroi 280
Paradise 306
Round 297
Snake River.. ..37, 75, 78, 230 ff .
Swan 207
Weiser 263
Valley View Ranch 197
Vantage Point 205
Vetch 104
Victor 206-07
Viola 216
Violet 110
Vireo 150
Vulture, turkey 134
W
Wallace 332
Wallace, William 34
Walsh Lake (see Lakes)
Wapato 112
Warbler 149
Wardner 333
Ward party 44
Warm Lake (see Lakes)
Warm River (see Rivers)
Warm River Inn 201
Warren 294
Warren, Eliza Spalding 26
Water, irrigation 166
power sites 167
resources 166
Waxwing 147
Weasel 126
Weaver Museum 241
Weippe 320
Weiser 263
Weiser Valley (see Valleys)
Whiskey Rock Lodge 303
White Bird 29,312
White Bird Canyon (see
Canyons)
White Bird Canyon, battle.. 47
White Bird Hill (see Hills)
Whitman, Marcus 24, 246
Whitman Massacre 27
Whitman Mission (see
Missions)
Wildcat Peak (see Peaks)
Wild Horse Lake (see
Lakes)
Williams Creek Gorge (see
Gorges)
Willow 99
436
IDAHO
Willow Creek 209
Winchester 311
Winchester Hill (see Hills)
Wolf 121
Wolf Lodge Bay (see Bays)
Woodchuck 129
Wood nymph 109
Woodpecker 144
Wood River Gorge (see
Gorges)
Wood River (see Rivers)
Wren 148
Wright, Col. George 28, 43
Wyeth, Nathaniel 20, 22
Y
Yankee Fork district 281, 389
Yellowbell 110
Yellow Belly Lake (see
Lakes)
Yellowjacket 278
Yellow-legs 145
Young, Brigham....20, 25, 45, 214
Young Ranch 201
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